Message in a Bottle

Sting wrote the song about a castaway who sends a message in a bottle looking for love. After a year without a reply he despairs, until he sees a hundred billion bottles on the shore. Sting said it was about loneliness and alienation but also about finding solace in other people going through the same thing, and that the third verse clinches it.

Summers said Sting had carried the central riff around for a while, first meant for another tune. In its final form it is built from several overdubbed guitar parts played by Summers. Summers called Copeland's drumming his finest drum track, overdubbed from about six different parts. It was recorded at Surrey Sound.

Released in September 1979 as the first single from Reggatta de Blanc, it was the Police's first UK number one. It also topped the chart in Ireland, reached number five in Australia and number 74 in the US. The band first played it on television on the BBC's Rock Goes to College at Hatfield Polytechnic, and gave the fee to the college. Summers has called it the best Police track. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 65 on its 2008 list of the 100 greatest guitar songs.