Every Breath You Take

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Template:Short description Script error: No such module "other uses". Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Template:EngvarB Script error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". "Every Breath You Take" is a song by the English rock band the Police from their fifth and final studio album Synchronicity (1983). Written by Sting, the single was the biggest American and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks (the band's only Template:Thinspace hit on that chart), and the Canadian RPM chart for two weeks. Their fifth UK No. 1, "Every Breath You Take" topped the UK singles chart for four weeks. It also reached the top 10 in numerous other countries. In May 2019, the song was recognised by BMI as being the most played song in radio history.[1][2]

"Every Breath You Take" is the Police's and Sting's signature song, and in 2010, it was estimated to generate between a quarter and a third of Sting's music publishing income.[3] At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, "Every Breath You Take" was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Record of the Year, winning in the first two categories. For the song, Sting received the 1983 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).[4]

In the 1983 Rolling Stone critics' and readers' poll, "Every Breath You Take" was voted the "Song of the Year". In the United States, the song was the best-selling single of 1983 and the fifth-best-selling single of the decade. Billboard ranked it as the Template:Thinspace song for 1983.[5] "Every Breath You Take" was ranked Template:Thinspace on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[6] It also ranked number 25 on BillboardTemplate:'s Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs.[7] In 2008, Q magazine named the song among the top 10 British Songs of the 1980s.[8] In 2015, "Every Breath You Take" was voted by the British public as The Nation's Favourite 1980s number one in a UK-wide poll for ITV.[9]

Origins and songwriting

To escape the public eye, Sting retreated to the Caribbean. He started writing the song at Ian Fleming's writing desk on the Goldeneye estate in Oracabessa Bay, Jamaica.[10] The lyrics are the words of a possessive lover who is watching "every breath you take; every move you make". Sting recalled:

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I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and had written it in half an hour. The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realise at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control.[11]

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When asked why he appears angry in the music video, Sting told BBC Radio 2, "I think the song is very, very sinister and ugly and people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle little love song, when it's quite the opposite. Hence so."[12] Gary T. Marx, sociologist and scholar of surveillance studies, wrote in 1988 that, while the song was "a love rather than a protest song", it "nicely captures elements of the new surveillance". He compared the lines to various new technologies of surveillance, including linking "every breath you take" to breath analysers, "every step you take" to ankle monitors, and "every vow you break" to voice stress analysis.[13]

According to the Phil Spector box-set book Back to Mono (1958–1969) (1991), "Every Breath You Take" is influenced by a Gene Pitney song titled "Every Breath I Take". The Hassles' 1967 song "Every Step I Take (Every Move I Make)," co-written by Billy Joel, also uses this rhyme. Led Zeppelin's song, "D'yer Mak'er" (1973), also contains the words "every breath I take; every move I make".

Recording

The demo of the song was recorded in an eight-track suite in North London's Utopia studios and featured Sting singing over a Hammond organ.[14] A few months later, he presented the song to the other band members when they reconvened at George Martin's AIR Studios in Montserrat to work on the Synchronicity album. The band initially tried the song in a variety of different styles and arrangements, such as reggae.[15][16]

While recording, guitarist Andy Summers came up with a guitar part inspired by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók that would later become a trademark lick, and played it straight through in one take. He was asked to put guitar onto a simple backing track of bass guitar, drums, and a single vocal, with Sting offering no directive beyond "make it your own".[17] Summers remembered:

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This was a difficult one to get, because Sting wrote a very good song, but there was no guitar on it. He had this Hammond organ thing that sounded like Billy Preston. It certainly didn't sound like the Police, with that big, rolling synthesizer part. We spent about six weeks recording just the snare drums and the bass. It was a simple, classic chord sequence, but we couldn't agree how to do it. I'd been making an album with Robert Fripp, and I was kind of experimenting with playing Bartok violin duets and had worked up a new riff. When Sting said 'go and make it your own', I went and stuck that lick on it, and immediately we knew we had something special.[18]

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The recording process was fraught with difficulties as personal tensions between the band members, particularly Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland, came to the fore.[14] Producer Hugh Padgham claimed that by the time of the recording sessions, Sting and Copeland "hated each other", with verbal and physical fights in the studio common.[14] The tensions almost led to the recording sessions being cancelled until a meeting involving the band and the group's manager, Miles Copeland (Stewart's brother), resulted in an agreement to continue.[14]

The drum track was largely created through separate overdubs of each percussive instrument, with the kick drum coming from the box for the Oberheim DMX drum machine while the main backbeat was created by simultaneously playing a snare and a Tama gong drum.[14] To give the song more liveliness, Padgham asked Copeland to record his drum part in the studio's dining room in order to achieve some "special sound effects". The room, however, was so hot that Copeland's drum sticks had to be taped to his hands to avoid slippage.[14]

Some piano accompaniment of a single repeating note was added to complete the song's bridge.[14] Padgham remembered that the band had "agonized over that part for a long time" and that the song "never really had a proper bridge" in its demo form.[19] He said that Sting entered the recording studio with a few piano ideas where he "bang[ed] away on the same note".[14][15] Padgham expressed his approval of the piano part, having been reminded of a single note guitar solo from his work producing XTC and encouraged Sting to use the idea on "Every Breath You Take".[14]

Cashbox described the song as "a subtly crafted minor key ballad" (although the song is actually in Ab major tuned to A=432 Hz) and commented on the effect of the "surprising, smokey smooth feel [of the vocal] above the band's patently insistent rhythmic drive."[20]

Music video

File:The Police 'Every Breath You Take' music video.png
The Police in the black-and-white music video for "Every Breath You Take", with a silhouetted man washing a large window behind Stewart Copeland in the background. Cinematographer Daniel Pearl won the first MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography in a Video with this music video.

The song had a music video (directed by duo Godley & Creme) loosely based on Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues (1944). Shot in black and white with a navy blue tint, the video depicts the band, accompanied by a pianist and string section, performing the song in a darkened ballroom as a man washes the floor-to-ceiling window behind them. Sting performs his part on double bass rather than bass guitar.

The video was praised for its cinematography; MTV (1999), Rolling Stone (1993), and VH1 (2001) named it one of the best music videos ever, placing it 16th, 61st, & 33rd in their respective top 100 lists. Daniel Pearl won the first MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography in a Video for his work on the video.[21] Released in the early days of MTV, "Every Breath You Take" was one of the earliest videos to enter heavy rotation, which significantly contributed to the song's popularity. American singer-songwriter Richard Marx remembers that "the first video I watched over and over was 'Every Breath You Take'. It was like seeing a Bergman film. Directors usually spelled out every word of the lyrics in a video, but this was the first video I knew that didn't do that. It was abstract." According to A&M Vice President of Marketing and Creative Services Jeff Ayeroff, "[The video for] 'Every Breath You Take' probably cost $75,000 to $100,000, and we sold over 5 million albums. With a good video, the return on your investment was phenomenal."[22]

On 5 October 2022, Billboard officially released a statement confirming that the music video for "Every Breath You Take" surpassed one billion views on YouTube.[23] 3 years later, in October 2025, the video surpassed 1.5 billion views.

Commercial performance

"Every Breath You Take" was released as a single in 1983, with B-side "Murder by Numbers" – a composition by Summers and Sting that had been omitted from the vinyl release of Synchronicity in favour of Copeland's "Miss Gradenko" due to LP length limitations,[24] only appearing as the final track on the CD and cassette. It reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Israel, Ireland, and South Africa. In Canada, it spent four weeks at No. 1 and an additional six weeks at No. 2. It also reached No. 2 in Spain, Sweden, Norway and Australia, while reaching the Top 10 in most other Western, Northern and Southern European countries.

In the 1983 Rolling Stone critics and readers poll, it was voted "Song of the Year". In the US, it was the best-selling single of 1983 and fifth-best-selling single of the decade. Billboard ranked it as the Template:Thinspace song for 1983.[5]

The single became the biggest US and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks (the band's only Template:Thinspace hit on that chart). It also topped the Billboard Top Tracks chart for nine weeks.

At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, "Every Breath You Take" was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Record of the Year, winning in the first two categories. Sting received the 1983 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).[4]

Legacy

Two cover versions charted on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1983: Rich Landers at number 68 and Mason Dixon at number 69.[25]

In 1999, "Every Breath You Take" was listed as one of the Top 100 Songs of the Century by BMI.[26][27] In May 2019, BMI updated the list and "Every Breath You Take" was recognised as the Most Performed Song in BMI's catalogue, a distinction previously held by "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by the Righteous Brothers.[1] In 2003, VH1 ranked the song the No. 2 greatest breakup song. As of 2003, Sting was making an average of $2,000 per day in royalties for the song.[28]

In 2001, The Sopranos episode "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood" features a mashup combining "Every Breath You Take" with Henry Mancini's 1959 song "Peter Gunn".

In October 2007, Sting was awarded a Million-Air certificate for nine million airplays of "Every Breath You Take" at the BMI Awards show in London.[29]

"Every Breath You Take" is the Police's and Sting's signature song, and in 2010 was estimated to generate between a quarter and a third of Sting's music publishing income.[3] In May 2019, it was recognised by BMI as being the most played song in radio history.[1][2] With nearly 15 million radio plays, Sting received a BMI Award at a ceremony held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California to mark it being the Most Performed Song in BMI's catalogue. BMI President and CEO Mike O'Neill stated: "For the first time in 22 years, BMI has a new top song in our repertoire with Sting's timeless hit 'Every Breath You Take,' a remarkable achievement that solidifies its place in songwriting history."[1]

In 2004, "Every Breath You Take" was ranked Template:Thinspace on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, although it was moved down to Template:Thinspace in their 2021 update of the list.[30] The song is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[6] It also ranked number 25 on BillboardTemplate:'s Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs.[7] In 2008, Q magazine named "Every Breath You Take" among the top 10 British Songs of the 1980s.[8] In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation's favourite 1980s number one in a UK-wide poll for ITV.[9]

The song is sampled in Puff Daddy and Faith Evans's 1997 hit "I'll Be Missing You," which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 11 weeks and won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group; Sting ultimately participated in a performance of "I'll Be Missing You" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards.[31]

According to Copeland in 2000:

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In my humble opinion, this is Sting's best song with the worst arrangement. I think Sting could have had any other group do this song and it would have been better than our version – except for Andy's brilliant guitar part. Basically, there's an utter lack of groove. It's a totally wasted opportunity for our band. Even though we made gazillions off of it, and it's the biggest hit we ever had, when I listen to this recording, I think "God, what a bunch of assholes we were!"[18]

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The song made a comeback as it was featured in the Snow Ball dance scene in Netflix series Stranger Things season 2 in which Eleven and Mike Wheeler dance to "Every Breath You Take". The song became popular with Generation Z and it appeared in videos on TikTok.[32] The scene also won for MTV Movie Award for Best Musical Moment at the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards.[33]

In the same interview, Copeland said Summers should get songwriting credit for "Every Breath You Take." In October 2023, Summers revealed that despite contributing the guitar riff that "has become a kind of immortal guitar part that all guitar players have to learn", he is still pursuing a "contentious" battle with Sting over "Every Breath You Take" songwriting credits. He said that the song was originally "going in the trash until I played on it." He also hinted at a legal battle over the song's songwriting credits. "Watch the press; let's see what happens in the next year. That's all I can tell you."[34][35] In August 2025, Copeland and Summers sued Sting and his publishing company Magnetic Publishing Limited for writing credits and lost royalties.[36]

Accolades

"Every Breath You Take" is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[37] On the 50th anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, the song was ranked No. 25 on Billboard's "The All-Time Top 100 Songs" chart.[38]

Track listing

7" single: A&M / AM 117

  1. "Every Breath You Take" – 3:56
  2. "Murder by Numbers" – 4:31

Two-disc 7" single: A&M / AM 117 Disc one

  1. "Every Breath You Take" – 4:13
  2. "Murder by Numbers" – 4:31

Disc two

  1. "Truth Hits Everybody" (Remix) – 3:34
  2. "Man in a Suitcase" (Live) – 2:18

Personnel

Credits from Richard Buskin and co-producer and engineer Hugh Padgham.[39]

Charts

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Certifications and sales

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See also

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References

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  1. ↑ a b c d "BMI Announces Top Honors for its 67th Annual Pop Awards". BMI. Retrieved 9 June 2019
  2. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ a b According to Sting's former publisher Tom Bradley. "Writing a Super Hit" by David Hepworth, The Word No. 86, April 2010, p. 74
  4. ↑ a b Lister, David, "Pop ballads bite back in lyrical fashion", The Independent, 28 May 1994
  5. ↑ a b Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1983
  6. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". (Spoken in the second Sting audio clip.)
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Cite error: Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".
  15. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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  18. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  22. ↑ Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of The Music Video Revolution, Dutton, New York, 2011
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  47. ↑ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Every Breath You Take". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
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  62. ↑ Script error: No such module "WLink"./chart-history/ASI "The Police Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  63. ↑ Script error: No such module "WLink"./chart-history/RTT "The Police Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
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External links

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