“It’s a sick, twisted song. I thought it was a love song. Just like all those people that get married to it not realising it’s a dark, demented track”: Stewart Copeland on The Police’s double-edged classic

The Police.

If, for some strange reason, you’d never ever heard the Police’s Every Breath You Take before, and one day, you received a letter that contained the song’s lyric starkly printed in all caps, you’d almost certainly take it for a threat…

Sting’s 1983 stalky-classic was the lead single of Synchronicity, the group’s final record. The song became the only US Billboard number #1 hit for the Police and their fifth UK chart-topper, fast becoming the group’s best-loved song. It scooped Grammys, Ivor Novellos and various other industry awards for its obvious brilliance. A big part of which being Andy Summers’ Béla Bartók-inspired arpeggiated chords, which cemented its emotive effectiveness.