Every Breath You Take

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Every Breath You Take"
Image:Every Breath You Take single cover.png
Single by The Police
from the album Synchronicity
Released	June ??, 1983
Format	vinyl record (7")
Recorded	1983
Genre	New Wave
Length	4:14
Label	A&M Records
Writer(s)	Sting
Producer(s)	The Police, Hugh Padgham
Chart positions
#1 (UK Singles Chart) #1 (US Billboard Hot 100) #6 (Dutch Top 40)
The Police singles chronology
"Secret Journey" (1982)	"Every Breath You Take" (1983)	"King Of Pain" (1983)

"Every Breath You Take", a song written by Sting and originally performed by The Police, was first released on Synchronicity, a blockbuster 1983 album (see 1983 in music). The single was one of the biggest of 1983, topping the Billboard Music Charts (North America) for eight weeks. Sting won Song of the Year and The Police won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the Grammy Awards of 1984 for "Every Breath You Take".

While the song sounds like a sedate and seemingly harmonious love ballad, it was actually written during the collapse of Sting's marriage to Frances Tomelty; the lyrics describe not well-meaning love but the motivations of a stalker, who is watching "every breath you take/every move you make". However, this fact has often gone unnoticed, or is ignored, and hence the song is often incorrectly classed as a love song. The song is an example of compound AABA form. Steve Huey of allmusic.com says:

"Guitarist Andy Summers picks a nearly identical arpeggio pattern on each chord he plays, and Sting's bass line keeps a steady eighth-note pulse without much rhythmic variation."<ref>http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:d7ozefrkbg56</ref>

This lack of rhythmic variation (which in other songs may be considered boring), is actually what gives the song its compellingly hypnotic atmosphere.

The song had a music video (directed by duo Godley & Creme) that was highly praised for its evocative black-and-white cinematography that many thought enhanced the song's lyrics. Both MTV (1999) and VH1 (2002) named it as one of the best music videos ever, placing it 16th and 33rd in their respective top 100 lists. Daniel Pearl won the first MTV cinematography award for his work on the video.<ref name="fisher">Fisher, Bob. A Conversation with Daniel Pearl. International Cinematographers Guild. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.</ref>

In 1984, Sting performed a version for Spitting Image entitled Every Bomb You Make, which was broadcast again as the finale of the New Year compilation show on 1 January 1985. He also performed the song with slightly different lyrics at the Live 8 concert, United Kingdom on July 2, 2005, when he sang, "We'll be watching you." referring to the heads of the G8.

Sting takes in an average of $2000 per day in royalties for the now 23-year-old song "Every Breath You Take."<ref>"CBS - 60 Minutes II 'Sting: All This Time'".</ref>

"Every Breath You Take" is rumoured to be influenced by a Phil Spector produced song by Gene Pitney titled "Every Breath I Take".

The song was parodied in an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy based on measuring, the song was made into "Every Measurement You Make." And the band's name was "The Meter Men."

The song's hook was the basis for Puff Daddy's collaborative tribute to murdered rapper The Notorious B.I.G., entitled "I'll Be Missing You", recorded with Faith Evans and 112. The song was performed with Sting himself at the MTV Video Music Awards. As with many of Puff Daddy's releases, his song was criticized for a perceived over-reliance on the original.

More recently, "Every Breath You Take" has been featured on the reality television show Rockstar: Supernova, performed by eventual Runner-up Dilana.

The song was also memorably used in episode 27 ("Mr Ruggerio's Neighborhood") of the television drama The Sopranos, as a mix with the Peter Gunn theme, whilst the FBI's operation to 'bug' Tony's basement went into full effect. It was also an integral part of the Profiler episode, "I'll Be Watching You"; however, when the time came to assemble DVDs of the show, the rights to the song proved to be too expensive for Profiler's producers, and the episode was subsequently left out of the DVD collection.

The version by the Police ranks #84 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Preceded by: "Candy Girl" by New Edition	UK number one single May 29 1983	Succeeded by: "Baby Jane" by Rod Stewart
Preceded by: "Flashdance... What a Feeling" by Irene Cara	Billboard Hot 100 number one single July 9 1983	Succeeded by: "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics