“I think it’s a nasty little song, really rather evil. It’s about jealousy and surveillance and ownership,” Sting said in 1983. The Police frontman was speaking during a sold-out arena tour of the US. Thanks to the “nasty little song”, which had just spent two months at the top of the Billboard singles chart, the trio were acclaimed as the world’s biggest band. They were also on the verge of breaking up.
“Every Breath You Take”was written in 1982 when Sting was suffering what he called a “mental breakdown” amid the disintegration of his first marriage. It was a straightforward song by The Police’s standards: “generic” and “rule-obeying” in Sting’s words.
In the lyrics, Sting takes the part of a stalker or voyeur. “Can’t you see you belong to me?” he sings in a husky voice. His bass has an inviting thrum. Andy Summers’ guitar part, inspired by the composer Béla Bartók, has a warm caress. Stewart Copeland, forced to rein in his drumming technique, provides a steady beat. At once suffocating and embracing, “Every Breath You Take”seeks to possess its listener through remorseless catchiness.
Sting felt that the mix of light and darkness was “all about my life”. It derived from the mood swings he experienced amid professional success and marital failure. But the “really rather evil” song about “jealousy and surveillance and ownership” had an extra significance. It summed up The Police’s troubled internal dynamics.
From their earliest days, the threesome struggled to accommodate each other’s viewpoints. Even the formation of the band in 1977 carried hidden resentments. “Stewart wants to call the band The Police. I hate the name, but say nothing,” Sting wrote in his memoir, Broken Music.
“Every Breath You Take” was the lead single from Synchronicity, which would prove to be their final album. Copeland and Summers had grown frustrated at Sting’s control over songwriting. Relations between the drummer and the singer were particularly toxic. While making “Every Breath You Take”, neither man could bear being in the studio at the same time. In the morning Copeland would add drum parts to the song. In the afternoon Sting would erase them.
Released in May 1983, it was their biggest hit. Its popularity was boosted by its stylish black-and-white video, shot by 10CC’s Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who made some of the most artful promos of the early MTV era. Synchronicity followed in June and proceeded to sell more than 8m copies in the US alone. But after touring it, the three members of The Police went their different ways in 1984. Despite subsequent reunions, they were effectively finished as a musical force.
“Every Breath You Take” marked both their peak and their end. Its ambiguity didn’t stop there. Many smitten couples have chosen to hear Sting’s “nasty little song” as a touching anthem of togetherness. Numerous pledges have been trothed to the sound of the singer murmuring “Every vow you break”. Many miles of wedding aisle have been walked to the simple drumbeat that so enraged Copeland.
Sting has professed amusement at the misinterpretation. But he also felt moved to write what he has described as an “antidote” to The Police’s signature song, as though it were a curse. “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free”appeared on his 1985 solo debut, The Dream of the Blue Turtles. It is a looser piece of music, a sign of Sting’s more relaxed approach after The Police. It is also much less memorable.
In 1997 the rapper Puff Daddy(now Diddy) sampled “Every Breath You Take” for “I’ll Be Missing You”, his tribute to slain comrade Biggie Smalls. Like the original, it was a huge hit. Andy Summers, hearing his guitar part recapitulated note for note, fumed that it was “the major rip-off of all time”. Sting, who performed the rap ballad with Puff Daddy at a 1997 awards ceremony, could afford to be more magnanimous. As owner of the song’s publishing rights, he was lavishly remunerated for the sample’s use.
Even its author can fall victim to the song’s malediction, however. Last year, Sting was awarded the Polar Music Prize in Sweden. At the ceremony he sat in the audience watching the distinguished guitarist and singer-songwriter José Feliciano butcher “Every Breath You Take”. The official video captures the moment. Feliciano drops notes and warbles wildly. The camera cuts to Sting. He furrows his brow and shuts his eyes. At one point he takes a deep breath. He would rather be anywhere else than here, watching his “really rather evil” song being murdered.
We’re keen to hear from our readers. Have you heard ‘Every Breath You Take’ being played in inappropriate circumstances? Let us know in the comments below.
‘The Life of a Song: The fascinating stories behind 50 of the world’s best-loved songs’, edited by David Cheal and Jan Dalley, is published by Brewer’s.
Music credits: Polydor Associated Labels, Bad Boy Records, Polydor Associated Labels
Picture credit: Fin Costello/Redferns