8 Rock Bands Who Didn't Write Their Biggest Hits

Blondie is a truly pioneering American band that helped open the pop world's doors for a lot of other unconventionally talented and ambitious musicians from the punk and new wave scene. They went from playing small New York clubs as a scrappy band to international pop stars in seemingly no time.

The band had everything: A super charismatic frontwoman in Debbie Harry, a strong retro visual element and also multiple songwriters who kept getting better at their craft. By their third album, Parallel Lines, they also had Mike Chapman turning the dials. Aussie Chapman was a bonafide hit machine who also had writing or producing credits on mega singles for Smokie, Racey and The Knack.

On Parallel Lines, the band had already dabbled with making covers a central part of their albums by using their higher fidelity version of power pop cult icons The Nerves' Hanging On The Telephone.

Two years later, they scored their third Billboard Hot 100 number one single with the reggae fusion track The Tide Is High. The song was originally written as a rocksteady number by John Holt and performed by his Jamaican group The Paragons.

Atomic Kitten also took a stab at it two decades later and ended up with a UK number one single.