Every Breath You Take

Sting began writing the song at Ian Fleming's desk at the Goldeneye estate at Oracabessa Bay in Jamaica. He said he woke in the middle of the night with the opening line in his head and wrote the song at the piano in half an hour. It sounds like a comforting love song, he said, but he had not realized how sinister it is, and had been thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control. His demo, made at Utopia studios in North London, had him singing over a Hammond organ.

At AIR Montserrat the band tried it in several arrangements. Summers made up the guitar part, which was inspired by Bartók, and played it straight through in one take after Sting told him to make it his own. The drums were built from separate overdubs instead of a full take. The kick came from an Oberheim DMX drum machine, and the backbeat came from playing a snare and a Tama gong drum at the same time. Mojo described the result as metronomic, almost Kraftwerk-like in its precision.

Released in 1983, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and was the best-selling US single of the year. It was number one in the UK for four weeks, and in Canada, and it won Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 1984 Grammys. The video, directed by Godley and Creme, was shot in black and white with Sting on double bass, and won the first MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography. Puff Daddy and Faith Evans sampled it in I'll Be Missing You in 1997, and in 2019 BMI named it the most performed song in its catalogue.