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-THE ISLAND LIFE-
'Every Breath You Take' by The Police
Did you know?
What began as a moment of personal crisis at Ian Fleming's writing desk would become the most-played song in radio history. "Every Breath You Take," The Police's haunting 1983 masterpiece, is perhaps the most famously misunderstood song of all time - a stalker's anthem masked as a love ballad that would define both the band's legacy and the 1980s itself.
The story begins in Jamaica, where a recently separated Sting had retreated to escape public attention. In a stroke of poetic circumstance, he found himself writing at the same desk where Ian Fleming had penned his James Bond novels. There, in the middle of the night, the song's iconic opening line came to him. Within thirty minutes, he had composed what would become The Police's signature hit and his personal gold mine.
The song's genesis was deeply personal. Written in the aftermath of Sting's separation from his first wife, Frances Tomelty, it captured the darker elements of love - obsession, jealousy, and surveillance. While many would later embrace it as a romantic dedication, Sting himself described it as "a nasty little song, really rather evil," chuckling at how frequently it was misinterpreted as a love song and even chosen for weddings.
The recording process was anything but smooth. By 1983, The Police were at their commercial peak but personal relationships within the band were fraying. The sessions at George Martin's AIR Studios in Montserrat were marked by tension, particularly between Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland. The band tried multiple arrangements, including a reggae version, before finding their sound.
The breakthrough came from guitarist Andy Summers, who contributed what would become one of rock's most recognizable guitar riffs. Inspired by Béla Bartók, Summers created the arpeggiated guitar part in a single take, transforming what had been a Hammond organ-driven song into a guitar classic. Yet this contribution would later become a point of contention - in 2023, Summers revealed he was still pursuing a "contentious" battle with Sting over songwriting credits.
The song's distinctive sound was crafted through meticulous production choices. The drums were recorded piece by piece, with Copeland forced to tape his drumsticks to his hands in the studio's sweltering dining room. The haunting bridge, with its hypnotic single-note piano line, was the result of extensive experimentation and debate.
The black-and-white music video, directed by Godley & Creme, drew inspiration from Gjon Mili's 1944 short film "Jammin' the Blues." Its sophisticated cinematography won MTV's first award for cinematography and helped establish the song's cultural dominance. The video's mysterious window washer added another layer to the song's themes of surveillance and observation.
The impact was immediate and lasting. "Every Breath You Take" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks, becoming 1983's biggest hit. It won two Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year, and the prestigious Ivor Novello Award. In 2019, BMI recognized it as the most-played radio song in history, with nearly 15 million plays, dethroning "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" after a 22-year reign.
The song's influence extended well beyond its era. In 1997, Puff Daddy's tribute to The Notorious B.I.G., "I'll Be Missing You," heavily sampled the track, topping charts worldwide and introducing it to a new generation. Sting, who wasn't consulted about the sample beforehand, ultimately embraced the adaptation, even performing it with Puff Daddy at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Today, "Every Breath You Take" generates between a quarter and a third of Sting's publishing income. Its legacy is complex: a masterpiece of musical ambiguity that manages to be both menacing and beautiful, a commercial triumph born from personal turmoil, and a testament to The Police's artistic peak even as they were falling apart.
The song's enduring popularity and frequent misinterpretation perhaps speak to its greatest strength: the ability to sound comforting while conveying something unsettling. As Sting himself noted, "I think the ambiguity is intrinsic in the song... I enjoy that ambiguity." It stands as a reminder that sometimes the most powerful art comes from life's darker moments, and that meaning, like beauty, often lies in the eye of the beholder.
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