Andy Summers of The Police recently revealed in an interview with Rick Beato that he initially despised the band’s iconic song ‘Every Breath You Take.’ Despite the song’s huge popularity, Summers found it corny. Here’s what he said about ‘Every Breath You Take’ in the interview:
“I didn’t like it. I always thought, ‘This is a corny pop song. I don’t really wanna play this. This is beneath us. We’re better than this.’ This is what I thought. I was more into (Jazz musician) Thelonious Monk. It went on for weeks. This argument between Sting and Stewart [Copeland] about where the kick drums should go blah blah… until we had some sort of semblance of something.”
The turning point came when Summers was encouraged by Sting to add his personal touch to the song. With a simple chord sequence, Summers completed his track in a single take, which changed the fate of the song. He continued:
“So it’s a pretty simple chord sequence. There’s nothing to it. It’s really simple and straight right, so I went in and said, ‘Okay, one take.’ I just play the whole song like that. They all stood up and applauded in the recording room, then the manager turned and went, ‘What’s that? That’s going straight to number one.’”
The Story Of ‘Every Breath You Take’
‘Every Breath You Take’ was written in 1982 when Sting was going through what he called a ‘mental breakdown’ following the collapse of his first marriage. Despite its widespread popularity and apparent simplicity, Sting has often shown a reluctance to embrace its straightforwardness. He has expressed that the song lacks harmonic development and emotional release.
Sting, seeking to add depth to the song’s understanding, revealed a more sinister and ugly side to it in 1993. Contrary to the common interpretation of it being a gentle love song, he described it as the opposite – dark and ‘stalkerish.’
He explained the concept of the song in an interview with the Independent in 1993. He said:
“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 realize at the time how sinister it was. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control.”
You can listen to Summers’ full interview on YouTube below.
