THE POLICE

Random and bite-sized facts on all things on the mythical musicians that made up The Police. Totally random but totally fascinating if you're into it. Do you know The Police now?

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“ROXANNE” WAS ORIGINALLY A BOSSA NOVA

When Sting first brought “Roxanne” to the band, it sounded very different from the finished Police recording. Stewart Copeland recalled that it was originally closer to a bossa nova. Andy Summers immediately responded to it and the band worked out how to turn it into something that sounded like The Police.

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STING THOUGHT “ROXANNE” WAS AN ANACHRONISM

Sting initially thought “Roxanne” didn't fit The Police because it was slower, quieter and more melodic than their usual material. When Miles Copeland heard the first album, however, “Roxanne” was the song that immediately caught his attention and helped convince him that the band had something special.

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“WALKING ON THE MOON” STARTED AS “WALKING ROUND THE ROOM”

Sting came up with the bass riff in a Munich hotel room after a night of drinking. He got up and walked around the room singing “walking round the room” to himself. The following morning he remembered the riff, but decided that “Walking Round the Room” was a stupid title and changed it to the even more unlikely “Walking on the Moon”.

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“WALKING ON THE MOON” WAS ORIGINALLY A ROCK SONG

The first version of “Walking on the Moon” was much more like a conventional rock song. The Police and producer Nigel Gray slowed it down and stripped it back, leaving huge amounts of space around the bass, drums and guitar. The sparse arrangement became one of the song's defining characteristics.

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THE POLICE RECORDED THEIR FIRST ALBUM ON VERY LITTLE MONEY

Outlandos d'Amour was recorded at Surrey Sound Studios, a small studio in Leatherhead run by Nigel and Chris Gray. Andy Summers's official credits for the album list all three members as the musicians, with The Police themselves credited as producers.

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STEWART COPELAND'S DRUMMING WAS PART OF THE POLICE'S SOUND

The Police didn't treat the drums as a simple timekeeping instrument. Copeland's playing constantly pushed against Sting's bass and Andy Summers's guitar, creating the tension that became one of the band's trademarks. The three musicians deliberately left space between their parts rather than filling every available gap.

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“MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE” WAS THE POLICE'S FIRST UK NUMBER ONE

“Message in a Bottle” gave The Police their first UK number one single in 1979. It came from Reggatta de Blanc, an album that showed how dramatically the band's sound had developed from the more punk-influenced debut only a year earlier.

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“DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME” WAS ABOUT A TEACHER WHO WASN'T STING

The song's narrator is a teacher involved with a pupil, but Sting has said the story wasn't autobiographical. He had worked as a teacher before becoming a professional musician, and drew on the atmosphere of schools and the idea of an inappropriate relationship when writing the song.

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“EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE” WAS NEVER INTENDED AS A ROMANTIC SONG

Although it became one of the most popular songs played at weddings and is often treated as a love song, Sting has repeatedly explained that the lyric is about obsession, surveillance and control. He has described the character speaking in the song as sinister rather than romantic.

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STING SAW SYNCHRONICITY AS ALMOST A SOLO RECORD

Sting later said that Synchronicity was a very personal statement and was almost a solo record in terms of its subject matter. He felt that songs such as “Every Breath You Take” and “Wrapped Around Your Finger” came from a place he couldn't really share with the other members of The Police. He said he realised while making the album that the band was coming to an end.

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THE POLICE COULDN'T GET A BACKING TRACK FOR SYNCHRONICITY

When the band began recording Synchronicity in Montserrat, producer Hugh Padgham recalled that after roughly a week or ten days they still hadn't produced a usable backing track. The sessions were becoming increasingly difficult, with the three members often working separately rather than as a conventional group.

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STING USED A SEQUENCER FOR THE FIRST TIME ON SYNCHRONICITY

Synchronicity was the first Police album on which Sting used a sequencer. He worked with an Oberheim DSX, using it prominently on “Walking in Your Footsteps” and “Synchronicity I”. The technology allowed him to build rhythmic patterns that would have been difficult for the three-piece to reproduce conventionally.

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ANDY SUMMERS ALMOST JOINED THE POLICE BY ACCIDENT

When Andy Summers first encountered Stewart Copeland and Sting, he wasn't convinced that joining them made sense. The Police were presenting themselves as a punk band and Summers was an experienced musician who had already worked with artists including Eric Burdon and Kevin Ayers. Copeland later joked that he assumed Summers would leave after two weeks because they couldn't afford him.

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STING'S FIRST SONGS DIDN'T FIT THE POLICE'S PUNK IMAGE

Sting already had melodic songs when he joined The Police, but Stewart Copeland initially didn't know about them. Sting later explained that the band's original guitarist Henry Padovani couldn't play the more sophisticated songs he had written. Once Andy Summers joined, the band had a musician capable of handling them.

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THE POLICE NEVER WANTED TO SOUND LIKE ANYONE ELSE

Andy Summers said that one of the band's unwritten rules was that they should not sound like anyone else. Each member was fiercely particular about his part, and Summers described Police recordings as the result of a very tight compromise between three musicians who all wanted something different.

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“BEHIND MY CAMEL” WAS RECORDED WITHOUT STING

“Behind My Camel” was written by Andy Summers for Zenyatta Mondatta. Sting disliked the song so much that he refused to play on it. Summers therefore played the bass as well as guitar on the recording, making it one of the rare Police tracks on which Sting does not perform.

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STING ACTUALLY BURIED THE TAPE OF “BEHIND MY CAMEL”

Sting disliked “Behind My Camel” so intensely that he took the tape containing the recording outside the studio and buried it in the garden. The track survived, of course, and appeared on Zenyatta Mondatta.

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“DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME” CONTAINS A RECORDING ACCIDENT

The strange crackling sound at the beginning of “Don't Stand So Close to Me” was caused by the analogue tape machine being switched on and positioned for recording. The record company initially worried that listeners would think the noise was a mistake, but the band liked the atmosphere it created and kept it.

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STEWART COPELAND RECORDED “DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME” IN ONE TAKE

Stewart Copeland's drum part for “Don't Stand So Close to Me” was recorded in a single take. The arrangement contained numerous changes, and Copeland later recalled Sting standing over him and effectively conducting him through the different sections.

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THE POLICE RECORDED ZENYATTA MONDATTA UNDER PRESSURE

The band recorded Zenyatta Mondatta extremely quickly because their record company wanted a new album ready for their forthcoming tour. The pressure was intense, with the musicians working long hours and having very little time to develop the songs in the studio.

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STING'S “SPIRITS IN THE MATERIAL WORLD” STARTED WITH A CHEAP CASIO

Sting used a small Casio keyboard to create the melody for “Spirits in the Material World”. He later recalled that the instrument cost around $25 and could only play a single note at a time. The simple keyboard became part of the unusual electronic texture of the finished track.

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“WALKING IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS” WAS STING PLAYING WITH A SEQUENCER

Sting's introduction to sequencing became a major part of Ghost in the Machine and later Synchronicity. He used an Oberheim sequencer to build the rhythmic patterns on “Walking in Your Footsteps”, treating the technology almost like another musician rather than simply adding synthesizer decoration.

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“EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE” WAS ALMOST THE OPPOSITE OF A POLICE SONG

When Sting first brought “Every Breath You Take” to the band, Andy Summers thought the demo sounded almost completely unlike The Police. It was very sparse and keyboard-based. Sting eventually told Summers to “make it your own”, and Summers came back with the distinctive guitar part that transformed the song.

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ANDY SUMMERS RECORDED THE FAMOUS GUITAR PART IN ONE TAKE

The defining guitar part on “Every Breath You Take” was played by Andy Summers in a single take. He based the unusual arpeggiated figure partly on the music of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The part was so effective that it became almost as recognisable as Sting's vocal.

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THE THREE MEMBERS OF THE POLICE RECORDED SYNCHRONICITY IN SEPARATE ROOMS

By the time they made Synchronicity, the band's relationships had deteriorated so badly that Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland were recorded in different rooms. Sting was in the control room, Summers was in the main studio and Copeland played drums in the dining room. They communicated using a video link.

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THE SEPARATE ROOMS ALSO IMPROVED THE SOUND

The unusual Synchronicity arrangement wasn't purely about keeping the three musicians apart. Producer Hugh Padgham also wanted to prevent sound leaking between instruments. Copeland's drums happened to sound particularly good in the dining room, so the arrangement solved both a musical and a personal problem.

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STING FIRST REALISED HE COULD WORK WITHOUT THE POLICE IN 1981

While performing at the Secret Policeman's Other Ball in 1981, Sting played “Message in a Bottle” and “Roxanne” on his own with guitar. He later said that hearing the songs work without the other two members made him realise he could perform successfully by himself. He didn't actually act on the idea until several years later.

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GRACE JONES RECORDED “DEMOLITION MAN” BEFORE THE POLICE

Sting wrote “Demolition Man” in 1980 while staying at actor Peter O'Toole's house in Ireland. He initially gave the song to Grace Jones, whose version appeared on her 1981 album Nightclubbing before The Police recorded their own much harder-edged interpretation for Ghost in the Machine. The same song therefore appeared on two major albums in the same year, in remarkably different arrangements.

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ANDY SUMMERS HAD A SONG THE RECORD COMPANY WANTED AS A SINGLE

“Omegaman”, Summers's contribution to Ghost in the Machine, was considered by A&M Records as a possible first single from the album. Summers later said the label was enthusiastic about it, but Sting didn't want it released as a single. It never received that push, despite the record company's initial interest.

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STING AND ANDY SUMMERS BUILT “MURDER BY NUMBERS” OVER DINNER

Stewart Copeland recalled that “Murder by Numbers” came together extraordinarily quickly. Andy was playing some jazz-influenced chords while the band were having dinner, Sting liked what he heard and brought out lyrics he had already written. They worked out the song and recorded it soon afterwards. It was released as the B-side of “Every Breath You Take”.

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“MURDER BY NUMBERS” SHOWED A DIFFERENT SIDE OF THE POLICE

The jazz-influenced harmony of “Murder by Numbers” made it an unusual track in The Police catalogue. Andy Summers later described it as an original piece that pushed the band's musical boundaries. It wasn't one of the main tracks on the original vinyl edition of Synchronicity, although it was included on some cassette and CD editions.

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“BEHIND MY CAMEL” WON A GRAMMY WITHOUT STING PLAYING ON IT

Andy Summers wrote and played bass on “Behind My Camel” after Sting refused to participate in the recording. The instrumental appeared on Zenyatta Mondatta and went on to win the Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1982. It was a remarkable award for a track made without the band's usual bassist.

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THE POLICE WON A GRAMMY FOR AN INSTRUMENTAL TRACK

“Reggatta de Blanc”, the instrumental title track of the band's second album, won the Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1981. The piece developed from a live instrumental section played during performances of “Can't Stand Losing You”. Its award showed that the band's interplay could be as compelling without a vocal or conventional pop-song structure.

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STING'S LYRICS WERE INSPIRED BY AN ARTHUR KOESTLER BOOK

The title Ghost in the Machine came from Arthur Koestler's 1967 book of the same name, which explores the relationship between mind and body. Sting was interested in ideas about human behaviour, psychology and the way people are controlled by systems. It was an unusually literary reference for a major pop album title.

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“DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME” NAME-CHECKS VLADIMIR NABOKOV

Sting's lyric includes the name of Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, the controversial novel about a middle-aged man's obsession with a young girl. Sting had previously worked as a teacher, and the literary reference adds another layer to the song's story of attraction, guilt and the abuse of authority. Sting later recalled that listeners sometimes asked him who Nabokov was.

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STING'S FIRST SOLO ALBUM USED SOME IDEAS THAT PREDATED THE POLICE'S END

When Sting began work on his first solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, some of the material had already been taking shape during his final period with The Police. He had been writing more personal songs and exploring jazz musicians and arrangements, a direction that was increasingly difficult to accommodate within the trio.

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THE POLICE'S FINAL ALBUM WAS MIXED IN CANADA

Although Synchronicity was recorded at AIR Studios on Montserrat, the band travelled to Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Quebec, to finish mixing it. The change of location gave them some distance from the difficult recording sessions. Andy Summers later recalled that hearing the music again after a break helped him realise how good the album was.

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THE POLICE'S FIRST SINGLE COST JUST £150 TO RECORD

The Police recorded their debut single, “Fall Out”, at Pathway Studios in Islington in February 1977. The session reportedly cost just £150. It featured Stewart Copeland, Sting and original guitarist Henry Padovani, making it the only officially released Police recording to feature Padovani.

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STING, ANDY SUMMERS AND STEWART COPELAND FIRST PLAYED TOGETHER IN ANOTHER BAND

Before Andy Summers officially joined The Police, the three musicians played together in Strontium 90, a project organised by former Gong bassist Mike Howlett. They recorded demos in 1977 and performed at a Gong reunion in Paris. The recordings were eventually released decades later on the archive album Strontium 90: Police Academy.

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THE POLICE ONCE MADE A CHEWING-GUM COMMERCIAL

In 1978, The Police appeared in a television commercial for Wrigley's Spearmint chewing gum. They dyed their hair blond because the advert's makers wanted them to look like a punk band. The commercial was filmed but never broadcast, leaving the footage as a strange early artefact from the band's history.

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“EVERY LITTLE THING SHE DOES IS MAGIC” STARTED AS A STING DEMO

Sting had already made a demo of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” before the band recorded it for Ghost in the Machine. Stewart Copeland recalled that the demo already sounded like a hit, but the group struggled to make it work as a Police arrangement. They tried different tempos and styles before eventually using Sting's demo as the foundation and building the band's parts around it.

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STEWART COPELAND THOUGHT “DE DO DO DO, DE DA DA DA” WAS A CLEVER LYRIC

Copeland later defended the song against people who dismissed its apparently childish chorus. He argued that the lyric was actually about how easily language can be manipulated and how words can sound meaningful while saying very little. He also suspected Sting had written it partly to wind up American radio DJs.

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“BOMBS AWAY” REFLECTED COPELAND'S CHILDHOOD IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Stewart Copeland wrote “Bombs Away” for Zenyatta Mondatta. Its lyrics reflect his experience of living in the Middle East as a child, when conflict and military intervention were part of the wider political landscape. The song's detached, almost jaunty delivery contrasts with its subject: people going about their daily lives while war happens elsewhere.

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ANDY SUMMERS WANTED TO TAKE THE POLICE IN A STRANGER DIRECTION

During the later Police years, Summers was increasingly interested in experimental music, including Captain Beefheart. He felt the band could have gone further away from conventional pop, but Sting's songwriting and the need for hit singles increasingly determined the direction of the records. Summers later spoke openly about his frustration with that imbalance.

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STING'S SONGS WERE ALREADY WRITTEN BEFORE THE BAND REHEARSED THEM

By the time The Police were making Synchronicity, Sting often arrived with fully developed demos rather than writing songs collectively in the rehearsal room. The other musicians then had to find their parts around his arrangements. This was one reason the band's working relationship became so tense: the three musicians had started out as a group, but the songwriting process increasingly revolved around Sting.

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COPELAND'S REJECTED POLICE SONGS FOUND A SECOND LIFE IN FILM

Stewart Copeland had written songs that The Police rejected, but some of that material eventually became the basis for his music for Francis Ford Coppola's film Rumble Fish. The soundtrack earned Copeland major award nominations, giving some of his ideas a life beyond the band that had turned them down.

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STING AND COPELAND COULD TURN A STUDIO SESSION INTO A FIGHT

Copeland has described the band's recording sessions as far more hostile than their performances suggested. Sting and Copeland regularly argued over arrangements and how the drums should be played. Copeland later said the conflict was sometimes physical as well as verbal, even while the band were producing some of their most successful music.

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“EVERY LITTLE THING SHE DOES IS MAGIC” WAS BUILT AROUND STING'S DEMO

The Police struggled to make the song work as a band recording. Sting's original demo already had the melody and arrangement largely worked out, and the group tried several different approaches before returning to it. Stewart Copeland eventually played drums over Sting's demo, and Andy Summers added guitar afterwards. The finished hit was built up from that starting point rather than recorded as a conventional live performance.

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STEWART COPELAND'S REJECTED SONGS HELPED HIM WIN FILM AWARDS

When The Police rejected some of Stewart Copeland's compositions during the Synchronicity sessions, he later developed some of those ideas for Francis Ford Coppola's film Rumble Fish. The soundtrack earned him a Golden Globe nomination and a Grammy nomination. Copeland has pointed out the irony that music considered unsuitable for The Police went on to receive major recognition elsewhere.

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ANDY SUMMERS WANTED TO TAKE THE BAND TOWARDS CAPTAIN BEEFHEART

During the final Police albums, Summers was listening to Captain Beefheart and wanted to explore more experimental territory. He later said that he had written material he considered stronger than some of Sting's songs, but Sting's position as the band's principal songwriter gave him considerable control over what they recorded. The musical disagreement became part of the wider tension surrounding Synchronicity.

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THE POLICE'S FIRST ALBUM WAS RECORDED AT A TINY STUDIO

Outlandos d'Amour was recorded at Surrey Sound Studios in Leatherhead, run by brothers Nigel and Chris Gray. It was a modest operation compared with the major studios the band would later use. The album's relatively raw sound came partly from the circumstances in which it was made, before the group had the budget and freedom that followed their breakthrough.

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STING AND SUMMERS PLAYED WITH GONG'S MUSICAL CIRCLE BEFORE THE POLICE TOOK OFF

In 1977, Sting and Andy Summers joined drummer Stewart Copeland in Strontium 90, a project organised by former Gong bassist Mike Howlett. The group performed at a Gong reunion in Paris and recorded demos, including an early version of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”. The recordings were released much later on Strontium 90: Police Academy, offering a glimpse of the musicians before The Police became famous.

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“SHADOWS IN THE RAIN” WAS A FAVOURITE DEEP CUT FOR COPELAND

Stewart Copeland later singled out “Shadows in the Rain” from Zenyatta Mondatta as one of his favourite less familiar Police tracks. He particularly liked the atmosphere Andy Summers created with his guitar, which gave the song a dense, almost orchestral wash. Copeland suggested that if the band had followed that direction more consistently, they might never have become such a huge pop group.

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THE POLICE'S NAME WAS CHOSEN PARTLY FOR ITS IRONY

Stewart Copeland came up with the name The Police. Andy Summers explained in a 1979 interview that the name had no political meaning: it was simply strong, memorable and slightly ironic as the name of a rock band. The group began in the London punk scene, but Summers was already keen to distance their music from the idea that they were simply another punk act.

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“EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE” ALMOST SOUNDED LIKE A DIFFERENT BAND

When Sting first presented “Every Breath You Take”, Andy Summers thought the demo sounded too much like conventional pop. Sting asked him to make the song his own. Summers came up with the distinctive arpeggiated guitar figure, drawing on the sound of composer Béla Bartók. That part became the musical centre of the finished recording.

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THE POLICE'S FINAL ALBUM BEGAN WITH NO USABLE BACKING TRACKS

Producer Hugh Padgham recalled that the Synchronicity sessions had been running for about a week, possibly ten days, before the band had produced a usable backing track. Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland were struggling to agree on arrangements and how the songs should be played. The album that emerged from those sessions became their biggest commercial success, despite the increasingly fractured working relationship.

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STING AND COPELAND HAD A SECRET REASON FOR REUNITING

When The Police reunited for their 2007 tour, Copeland said he and Sting had a private agenda: to reach a better understanding after years of conflict. Andy Summers described the early rehearsals as difficult, admitting that he initially wondered whether the reunion would work. Once they started playing, however, the old musical chemistry returned remarkably quickly.

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STEWART COPELAND FILMED THE POLICE FROM THE BEGINNING

Stewart Copeland bought a Super 8 camera in 1978 and filmed the band as they moved from small venues to international stardom. Decades later, he edited more than 50 hours of this personal footage into the 2006 documentary Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out. It offers a rare view of the band's rise from the drummer's perspective.

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“TEA IN THE SAHARA” CAME FROM A PAUL BOWLES NOVEL

The haunting closing track on Synchronicity was inspired by Paul Bowles's 1949 novel The Sheltering Sky. Its story of three sisters who wait in the desert for a prince who never returns provided the song's central image. Andy Summers later recalled that he had introduced Sting to the book.

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THE POLICE HAD A SURPRISING GERMAN CONNECTION

Before they became international stars, Sting and Andy Summers worked with German experimental composer Eberhard Schoener. Stewart Copeland joined them for some of the project, which mixed rock with electronic and orchestral music. The collaboration produced albums including Flashback and Video Magic, revealing a more experimental side of the musicians before the Police sound became firmly established.

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“DOES EVERYONE STARE” INSPIRED A DOCUMENTARY TITLE

The Police's song “Does Everyone Stare”, from Reggatta de Blanc, gave Stewart Copeland the title for his later film Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out. The song and the documentary share an apt theme: watching the world around you, although the film's real value is its unusually intimate footage of the band on the road.

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STING'S EARLY FILM WORK INCLUDED A POLICE SOUNDTRACK

Sting appeared in the 1982 film Brimstone and Treacle, adapted from Dennis Potter's controversial play. The Police contributed music to the soundtrack, while Sting also recorded “Spread a Little Happiness” for the film. His performance of the old song became a solo hit in the UK, offering an early glimpse of his career beyond the band.

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ANDY SUMMERS GAVE “TEA IN THE SAHARA” ITS UNSETTLING GUITAR SOUND

On “Tea in the Sahara”, Andy Summers used a near-feedback guitar sound, carefully controlling its wobble to create a wavering, almost ghostly texture. It suits the song's desert setting and gives the track much of its strange atmosphere without relying on a conventional guitar solo.

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THE POLICE'S MUSICAL ROOTS WENT BEYOND PUNK AND REGGAE

Before the Police settled into their distinctive trio sound, all three members had connections to more progressive music. Copeland had played with Curved Air, while Summers had worked with musicians including Kevin Ayers and members of the wider progressive-rock scene. Their later combination of tight pop songs, unusual rhythms and atmospheric arrangements drew on a much broader background than their punk-era image suggested.

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“TEA IN THE SAHARA” WAS A SONG STING LATER WANTED TO SLOW DOWN

Although Sting has spoken warmly about “Tea in the Sahara”, he later felt the Police had played it too quickly on the original Synchronicity recording. He particularly valued the space within the arrangement. That contrast is interesting: a song built around stillness and waiting became, in his view, more hurried than it needed to be.

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THE POLICE'S 1986 RETURN PRODUCED JUST ONE NEW RECORDING

The Police briefly reconvened in 1986 after their long break, with plans that might have led to more work together. But Stewart Copeland broke his collarbone in a horse-riding accident before the sessions, and the reunion was further undermined by the band's unresolved tensions. The only completed new recording was a reworked version of “Don't Stand So Close to Me”, released as “Don't Stand So Close to Me '86”.

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THE POLICE'S GERMAN EXPERIMENTS ARE WORTH SEEKING OUT

The band's work with Eberhard Schoener is a fascinating detour for anyone who knows only the five Police studio albums. The recordings bring together Sting's voice, Summers's guitar and Copeland's drumming with Schoener's experimental electronic and orchestral approach. They show that the musicians were exploring unusual musical territory even while trying to establish themselves as a punk-era band.

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“WRAPPED AROUND YOUR FINGER” TURNS THE POWER DYNAMIC UPSIDE DOWN

Sting described “Wrapped Around Your Finger” as a spiteful song about turning the tables on someone who once held power over you. Its lyrics draw on several sources, including the Faust legend and the Greek monsters Scylla and Charybdis. The song's apparent triumph is therefore more complicated than its title might suggest.

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“KING OF PAIN” USES STRANGE IMAGES TO DESCRIBE AN INNER STATE

Sting explained that the images in “King of Pain” were symbolic rather than a straightforward narrative. A black spot on the sun, a dead salmon and a butterfly caught in a spider's web all become reflections of the same troubled state of mind. He described the song as a series of analogous images about the soul.

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THE MIDDLE OF “CAN'T STAND LOSING YOU” BECAME ANOTHER POLICE SONG

During live performances, the instrumental section in the middle of “Can't Stand Losing You” developed into an extended jam. Stewart Copeland later recalled that this passage evolved into “Reggatta de Blanc”, the instrumental title track of the band's second album. It's a good example of how the Police could turn a live performance into new material.

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THE “CAN'T STAND LOSING YOU” SLEEVE WAS DESIGNED AS DARK COMEDY

The original 1978 single sleeve showed Stewart Copeland standing on a block of ice with a noose around his neck, waiting for the ice to melt. Art director Mike Ross came up with the concept. Copeland later described the image as a piece of dark wit, matching the song's bleak subject with an intentionally provocative visual joke.

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STING WROTE MUCH OF “SYNCHRONICITY” IN JAMAICA

Before recording the 1983 album, Sting stayed at Goldeneye, the Jamaican home associated with James Bond creator Ian Fleming. He wrote much of the album's material there, including “King of Pain”, “Wrapped Around Your Finger” and “Every Breath You Take”. The songs were deeply personal, which Sting later said made the group increasingly difficult to manage as a democracy.

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STEWART COPELAND DIDN'T REALLY BELIEVE THE BBC HAD BANNED THE BAND

When “Can't Stand Losing You” was kept off BBC radio because of its controversial sleeve, the band's publicity turned the situation into a “Banned by the BBC” story. Copeland later pointed out that the publicity was useful, but the distinction mattered: it was the record's treatment by radio, rather than a ban on the group itself, that fuelled the claim.

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“DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME '86” WAS MORE THAN A GREATEST-HITS REISSUE

In 1986, the Police recorded a new version of “Don't Stand So Close to Me” for the compilation Every Breath You Take: The Singles. The remake gave the song a more contemporary production and reached the UK Top 25. It was one of the band's final studio recordings, rather than simply the original hit being repackaged.

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THE POLICE'S FINAL ALBUM WAS BUILT AROUND STING'S PERSONAL SONGS

Sting later explained that “Every Breath You Take”, “King of Pain” and “Wrapped Around Your Finger” were all about his own life. He wrote them during a period of personal upheaval, and the material was much more intimate than the band's earlier songs. He came to feel that this kind of songwriting was difficult to reconcile with the democratic process of a three-member band.

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“THE BED'S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU” STARTED BEFORE THE POLICE

“The Bed's Too Big Without You” wasn't entirely new when the Police recorded it. Sting had already performed a version with his earlier band Last Exit. For the Police recording he transformed it into a reggae-influenced song built around a single chord, showing how he could radically reshape material from his past.

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“BRING ON THE NIGHT” ALSO CAME FROM STING'S LAST EXIT DAYS

Parts of “Bring On the Night” can be traced back to a Last Exit song called “Carrion Prince (O Ye of Little Hope)”. Sting reused material from the earlier song for the Police version, one of several occasions when he mined his pre-Police songwriting for ideas.

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“CANARY IN A COALMINE” EXISTED IN DEMO FORM LONG BEFORE THE ALBUM

The Police recorded an early version of “Canary in a Coalmine” in Tokyo in February 1980. Sting then made another demo in Dublin later that year. The Dublin version was already surprisingly close to the finished track, although the final arrangement added and changed several sections.

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STING WROTE “THE BED'S TOO BIG” OVER A BLUES STANDARD

Sting revealed that “The Bed's Too Big Without You” was written over the chord changes of the old blues standard “Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out”. He then stripped the idea down and turned it into a one-chord reggae song for the Police.

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“IT'S ALRIGHT FOR YOU” WAS ALMOST A KLARK KENT TRACK

Stewart Copeland had a demo of “It's Alright for You” dating from around Christmas 1978, when he called it “Xmas Rave”. He played most of the instruments himself on the demo. The song eventually became part of Reggatta de Blanc, with Andy Summers adding the guitar solo.

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ANDY SUMMERS USED A SLIDE ON “IT'S ALRIGHT FOR YOU”

Andy Summers used slide guitar for his solo on “It's Alright for You”. He later said he used slide on only two Police recordings: this one and “Next to You”. That makes the brief solo an unusually specific part of his Police guitar vocabulary.

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“ON ANY OTHER DAY” WAS ALMOST ENTIRELY COPELAND

Stewart Copeland played the drums, guitars and vocals on “On Any Other Day”. The track grew out of his own songwriting rather than a typical Sting-led Police composition, and its appearance on Reggatta de Blanc gave Copeland one of his rare lead-vocal performances with the band.

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“DOES EVERYONE STARE” BEGAN AS A PIANO PIECE

Stewart Copeland originally wrote “Does Everyone Stare” as a piano piece while he was at college. It eventually became one of the strangest tracks on Reggatta de Blanc, demonstrating how far the Police's second album could move away from the straightforward punk-reggae formula.

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THE POLICE CONSIDERED REUSING “FALL OUT” FOR THEIR SECOND ALBUM

The Police were surprisingly short of new material when they began work on Reggatta de Blanc. At one point they even considered re-recording their first single, “Fall Out”. Instead they filled the album with a mixture of new Sting songs, older material and pieces developed from Copeland's ideas.

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“ONE WORLD (NOT THREE)” WAS ONE OF THE FEW OPENLY REGGAE TRACKS ON GHOST IN THE MACHINE

Although the Police were still associated with reggae, the 1981 album Ghost in the Machine deliberately moved away from that formula. Contemporary commentary on the album noted that “One World (Not Three)” was the track that most openly retained the reggae influence while the rest of the record explored funk, electronic textures, horns and heavier rhythms.

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