Songoftheday 1/12/13 - Since you've gone I been lost without a trace, I dream at night I can only see your face...

The Police - "Every Breath You Take"
from the album Synchronicity (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (eight weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 20

Today's Song of the Day was the biggest single of 1983, by the alternative rock group the Police, who were formed in the late 70s by American drummer Stewart Copeland, who recruited English singer/bassist Gordon Sumner (Sting) and guitarist Andy Summers. After issuing a single that almost made the British top-40, "Fall Out", the trio recorded their first album, Outlandos D'Amour, which was released at the end of 1978. The first single, "Roxanne", eventually became their first top-40 hit in both England and America, while its followup, "Can't Stand Losing You", did even better in their homeland, reaching #2 in the summer of 1979. They closed out the 70s with another album, Regatta de Blanc, and two #1 singles in England, "Message In A Bottle" and "Walking On The Moon", by the end of the year.

The Police started out the 80s with their third release, Zenyatta Mondatta, whose two singles became top-10 pop hits in America, "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" (the former topping the UK charts for the third time). With the big Stateside success, the trio went to record their most sonically complex album as yet, Ghost In The Machine (my personal favorite of theirs), and the first single, "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", not only made their fourth UK #1, but went to #3 on the US pop chart, making the band an A-list act on mainstream radio in 1981.

After a break that saw all three members doing both musical and cinema projects (like Sting's starring role in Dune), the band came back to record their fifth (and what would be their final) studio album, Synchronicity. The title, a word coined by psychologist and socialogist Carl Jung, couldn't be farther from the actual reality in the band, since the break didn't help but rather further alienate the three members from each other, to the point that they recorded in separate rooms in the recording studio house. The first single issued would become their biggest hit ever, the brooding "Every Breath You Take". The song that has since been relegated to love song mixtapes and wedding receptions is actually a Big Brother-esque stalkers' anthem that didn't give the receiver the choice whether they'll be "watched".....

"Every Breath You Take" spent two months at the top spot on the American pop chart, and spent a week longer on top of the rock radio chart. It also went to #5 on the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) radio format chart, and #26 on the dance club play chart as well. In England, the single went to #1 for four weeks, and topped the list in Canada and Ireland also. I guess all that bickering paid off since it has become their trademark track, and proves that simplicity can create a more moving musical experience. The song won two Grammys the following year for Song of the Year and Group Pop Performance.

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The same year, country act Mason Dixon had a minor hit covering the song for the only format probably not playing the original.

In 1986, disco queen Gloria Gaynor recorded the song for a cover-song album that is hilariously awful bordering on campy. I mean, rockabilly? Really?

By far the biggest interpolation of the song was done by rapper/music head Puff Daddy on his #1 Notorious B.I.G. tribute single "I'll Be Missing You" with Faith Evans and 112. It did even better than the original, spending 11 weeks at #1 in the US...

 In 2001, Sting whored himself out to the TV gods performing the song with Robert Downey Jr on Ally McBeal...

British reggae icons UB40 covered the song for the soundtrack to the Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates in 2004...

...and another of my favorite singers, Australian Tina Arena, recorded the song in 2008, though again she tries to make the song too precious, with it really isn't...

 ..and finally, what's an 80s song without a club remake...In this case it's David May in 2009 under the title "I'll Be Watching You"...

Up tomorrow: A "state" band has proximity.