The Paragons were a Jamaican vocal group of the mid-Sixties, best known for the original version of the Blondie hit The Tide Is High.

Led by future solo stars John Holt and Bob Andy (who also became a duo star with Bob & Marcia’s classic Young, Gifted & Black), they shared their name with another vocal group from Brooklyn.

But although the Jamaican quartet was influenced heavily by American soul music, the New Yorker guys sang doo wop rather than rocksteady.

There was much more to them than the hit single popularised by Blondie; in fact they topped the Jamaican charts on multiple occasions.

They started out at Duke Reid’s legendary Treasure Isle studio, recording songs like Holt’s romantic ballad Love At Last – which would not have sounded out of place in the Brooklyn group’s repertoire with its lovelorn harmonies and Hawaiian guitar.

With Reid as their mentor, and Holt moving them towards a rootsier sound after the departure of Andy, they recorded numerous sides for Coxsone Dodd.

Many were re-recorded by John Holt when he went solo in 1970, including this classic track, Hooligan (aka Change Your Style), recorded at Studio One with Coxsone back in 1966.

Others included classic reggae tunes like Man Next Door (Dennis Brown), Happy Go Lucky Girl (Wayne Wade), Wear You To The Ball (U-Roy and UB40), Memories By The Score (Ken Boothe, Johnny Clarke), Only A Smile (Maxi Priest).

Here’s the original version of Hooligan sung by Holt with The Paragons; later versions – vocal, dub and deejay style – were made by Dennis Brown, Frankie Paul, Earl Sixteen, I Roy, Prince Mohammed and Holt himself in 1980.