The Dream of the Blue Turtles

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The Dream of the Blue Turtles is the debut solo album by English musician Sting, released on 17 June 1985. The album reached number three on the UK Albums Chart[1] and number two on the US Billboard 200.

Five singles were released from the album: "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free", "Fortress Around Your Heart", "Russians", "Moon Over Bourbon Street", and "Love Is the Seventh Wave". The album earned Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Engineered Recording; the instrumental title track was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance.

An expanded edition will be released on 11 July 2025 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of The Dream of The Blue Turtles. The version includes B-sides such as "Another Day" and "The Ballad of Mac the Knife", as well as remixes of "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free", "Love Is The Seventh Wave", "Moon Over Bourbon Street" and "Fortress Around Your Heart".[2]

Background and release

The album is named after a dream that Sting had.[3] He initially worked on tracks for his debut solo album with producers Torch Song: William Orbit, Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert.[4] These sessions were more synth-driven and 'electrofunk' in nature than what eventually was recorded and released; Sting eventually decided against this direction, and instead decided to pursue more jazz-oriented music.

Thus, in January 1985, he started assembled his backing band after holding auditions for jazz musicians in New York, including the likes of Omar Hakim, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland and Darryl Jones. Subsequently, he rehearsed the material with his band for a week before three surprise concerts at The Ritz in New York in late February; Sting's idea was for a "baptism of fire" to help consolidate the band's identity before recording began in early March.[5][6] Seven weeks were spent recording the songs at Eddy Grant's Blue Wave Studio in Barbados, followed by mixing at Le Studio in Quebec.[7]

Although the single "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" reached No. 3 in the US, it only reached 26 in the UK, where the album's track "Russians" (about Cold War nuclear anxieties, which had peaked in the 1980s) proved more popular.Template:Fact

In the UK the album was kept off No. 1 in the week of its release by Marillion's Misplaced Childhood and Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen occupying the top two places. In the US, the album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.Template:Fact

The film Bring On the Night documents some of the recording work that produced this album, as well as the subsequent tour.Template:Fact

Songs

The songs include "Children's Crusade", which was demoed at AIR Studios on a 48-track machine. The song relates to the destruction of the younger generation in World War I.[7] "Shadows in the Rain" had originally appeared on Zenyatta Mondatta by the Police and was re-recorded for The Dream of the Blue Turtles.[8] "We Work the Black Seam" was about the UK miners' strike of 1984–85 and musically based on "Savage Beast", a song dating back to Sting's days in Last Exit). Sting played double bass on "Moon Over Bourbon Street, which was inspired by Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire.[9] "Consider Me Gone" references the first quatrain of Shakespeare's Sonnet 35.

Accolades

Grammy Awards Template:Awards table |+Grammy Award nominations for The Dream of the Blue Turtles | style="width:35px; text-align:center;" rowspan="2"|1986 || rowspan="2"| The Dream of the Blue Turtles || Album of the Year[10] || Template:Nom |- | Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male[11]|| Template:Nom |-

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Track listing

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Singles

  • "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" (1985) No. 3 US Hot 100, No. 26 UK Singles Chart[12][1]
  • "Russians" (1985) No. 16 US Hot 100, No. 12 UK Singles Chart[12][1]
  • "Fortress Around Your Heart" (1985) No. 8 US Hot 100, No. 49 UK Singles Chart[12][1]
  • "Love Is the Seventh Wave" (1985) No. 17 US Hot 100, No. 41 UK Singles Chart[12][1]
  • "Moon Over Bourbon Street" (1986) No. 44 UK Singles Chart[1] – with a B-side of "The Ballad of Mack the Knife"

Personnel

Additional personnel

  • Danny Quatrochi – Synclavier, backing vocals
  • Eddy Grant – congas (track 7)
  • Frank Opolko – trombone (track 2)
  • Pete Smith – backing vocals
  • Elliot Jones – backing vocals
  • Jane Alexander – backing vocals
  • Vic Garbarini – backing vocals
  • Pamela Quinlan – backing vocals
  • The Nannies Chorus – backing vocals
  • Rosemary Purt – backing vocals
  • Stephanie Crewdson – backing vocals
  • Joe Sumner – backing vocals
  • Kate Sumner – backing vocals
  • Michael Sumner – backing vocals

Production

  • Pete Smith – producer, engineer
  • Sting – producer
  • Jim Scott – engineer
  • Bob Ludwig – mastering at Masterdisk (New York, NY).
  • Max Vadukul – photography
  • Danny Quatrochi – photography
  • Michael Ross – art direction, design
  • Richard Frankel – art direction, design

Charts

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Certifications and sales

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References

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  1. ↑ a b c d e f Sting in the UK Charts Template:Webarchive, The Official Charts.
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  4. ↑ Connelly, Christopher: Random Notes, Rolling Stone Issue 433, 25 October 1984.
  5. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
  6. ↑ Blue Turtles: 1985/86 tour dates on Sting.com
  7. ↑ a b Template:Cite magazine
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  14. ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  16. ↑ Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 2011-10-20
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  33. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
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