Don't Stand So Close to Me

Sting wrote the song about a schoolteacher's feelings for a student and the fallout when other adults find out. A line about an old man in a book by Nabokov alludes to Lolita. Before joining the band Sting had worked as an English teacher, and his account of where the song came from varied between interviews. The line rhyming Nabokov with shake and cough drew criticism, and Sting replied that he had used that terrible rhyme technique a few times.

Summers added a guitar synthesizer in the middle of the song, the first time the band had used one. He said they wanted something to lift the middle after Sting had recorded his vocal. Released on 18 September 1980, it became the band's third UK number one, selling 808,000 copies that year alone. It reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top ten in Australia and Canada. At the 1982 Grammy Awards it won Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Summers wrote the B-side Friends.

The Police recorded a new version in 1986 as Don't Stand So Close to Me '86, their final single, which reached the UK top 25.