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This is one of the most misinterpreted songs ever. It is about an obsessive stalker, but it sounds like a love song. Some people even used it as their wedding song. The Police frontman Sting wrote it after separating from his first wife, Frances Tomelty.
In a 1983 interview with the New Musical Express, Sting explained: "I think it's a nasty little song, really rather evil. It's about jealousy and surveillance and ownership." Regarding the common misinterpretation of the song, he added: "I think the ambiguity is intrinsic in the song however you treat it because the words are so sadistic. On one level, it's a nice long song with the classic relative minor chords, and underneath there's this distasteful character talking about watching every move. I enjoy that ambiguity. I watched Andy Gibb singing it with some girl on TV a couple of weeks ago, very loving, and totally misinterpreting it. (Laughter) I could still hear the words, which aren't about love at all. I pissed myself laughing."
This was the biggest hit of 1983. It was US #1 for 8 weeks.
Sting wrote this at the same desk in Jamaica where Ian Fleming wrote his James Bond Novels.
The recording process created a great deal of tension in the studio. Sting was very particular about his song and would not let the other members of The Police (Andy Summers and Stuart Copeland) do much with it. The Police broke up after this album.
The middle of the song was finished last. They didn't know what to do with it until Sting sat at a piano and started hitting the same key over and over. That became the basis for the missing section.
Sting knew this would be the band's biggest hit when he wrote it, even if he didn't think he was breaking new ground. In Rolling Stone magazine, he said: "'Every Breath You Take' is an archetypal song. If you have a major chord followed by a relative minor, you're not original." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
This won Grammys in 1984 for Song Of The Year and Best Pop Performance By Duo Or Group With Vocal.
At the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1983, this won for Best Cinematography. Featuring black and white layered visuals, it was directed by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley of the duo Godley & Creme, who used a similar look in their 1985 video for "
Cry."
According to Andy Summers, an executive at their record company named Jeff Ayeroff showed the band, along with Godley and Creme, a 1944 short film called
Jammin' The Blues, which contained elegant black and white footage of famous Jazz musicians performing in a smoky club. Andy Summers of The Police stated that their video was just a "watered down version" of this film.
Godley and Creme also borrowed the location and the cinematographer (Daniel Pearl) from the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers video for "
A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)," which has a very similar look.
Diddy (known as Puff Daddy at the time), sampled this on "
I'll Be Missing You," his 1997 tribute to rapper Notorious B.I.G. Sting didn't know about the sample until after the song was released. He ended up making lots of money from it, claiming he put some of his kids through college with the proceeds. Sting performed "I'll Be Missing You" with P. Diddy at the MTV Video Music Awards, and the two remain friends.
Sting performed this on a 2001 episode of Ally McBeal. In the show, he was sued by a couple who broke up after one of his sexually suggestive concerts.
Robert Downey Jr., who was on Ally McBeal at the time, recorded a duet of this with Sting for an album from the show called For Once In My Life. Downey was arrested and sent back to drug rehab soon after it was released.
This appears on the soundtrack of the 1999 Julia Roberts movie Runaway Bride. It was also used in the movie The Replacements.
The Police performed this when they were inducted in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2003. They were inducted by No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani, who showed a picture of her getting an autograph from Sting when she was a chubby 13-year-old. It was the last performance of the night and the closest thing to the all-star jam that typically ends the ceremonies. The Police were joined by Stefani, Steven Tyler (who inducted AC/DC), and John Mayer, who had recently won a Grammy for his song "Your Body Is A Wonderland."
Sting re-wrote the lyrics when he performed this in 2005 at Live 8, a set of concerts organized by Bob Geldof to increase activism and demand more aid for Africa. Sting included the line, "We'll be watching you" to mean the world would be keeping an eye on the politicians making critical decisions on the fate of Africa.
Taking account of Puff Daddy's "
I'll Be Missing You," as well, which spent 11 weeks at #1, the combined total of 19 weeks makes this the longest running #1 tune in the Hot 100. The longest run at the top for a single song is Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men's "
One Sweet Day," which spent 16 weeks at #1.
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Every status update, every friend you add, I'll be watching you !
Prior to The Police releasing Synchronicity back in 1983, Sting was, at the time, in the process of divorcing his first wife, Frances Tomelty (who, mind you, was, at the time, a good friend of Sting's present wife, Trudie Styler). During this tumultuous time of divorce from Frances, and considering the impending break-up of The Police, Sting sought the comfort of psychotherapy in order to re-center himself.
It turns out that Sting's psychotherapist was of the Jungian (Carl G. Jung - a neo-Freudian therapist) school of thought. Sting was intrigued by this method of therapy and hence picked up Jung's book, Synchronicity - An Acausal Connecting Principle (hence the band's 1983 album title). Jung's book is an "extended work in the field of parapsychology aims, on the one hand, to incorporate the findings of 'extrasensory perception' (ESP) research into a general scientific point of view and, on the other, to ascertain the nature of the psychic factor in such phenomena" - Unknown. The concept of ESP explains much of the content of the the Synchronicity album song themes, but the concept of psychotherapy reigns in EBYT.
The lyrics are intentionally vague - whether he (Sting) is speaking of his thoughts toward his therapist, or vice versa, is left up to the listener of the song to interpret the dialogue. Regardless, "I'll be watching you" implies an element of control in the relationship - something seen in almost every psychodynamic relationship to date.
Furthermore, one needs to view the video of EBYT in order to conceptualize the true meaning of the song. The video is intentionally filmed in black and white, which emphesizes Freud's concepts of the Id and the Ego, as well as Jung's concepts of the Anima and the Animus ... and quite possibly the psychological concepts of sanity and insanity. The representation of the Mandala (the round ashtray morphing into a round drum snare as well as the round window being cleaned by the window-washer) is indicative of Jung's concept of (the centering of) Self. Finally, towards the end of the video, there is a man on a ladder who appears to be cleaning a window with a squeegee. This man represents the therapist, who is cleaning the windows of the soul, so that he can look deep inside that of the patient.
Listen, I don't care whether you're a Sting / Police fan or not (trash him all you want, I don't care about your lame opinions), EBYT happens to be one of my favourite songs to-date and Sting is one of my favourite muscicians / songwriters of all-time. He is one of the most prolific poets of our time since the passing of Jim Morrison. Sting, keep in mind, was actually an English literature professor in England back at the time of the formation of The Police, prior to 1978, so, smarts-wise, I think he's got us all beat, hands down. Anybody who is 58 years old and is as mature, as literate, as intellectual, and as svelte as Sting, is alright in my book! I'll continue to follow Sting and his provocative songwriting styles until he chooses not to perform any longer. I'd rather listen to mind-stimulating prose than all of the other uncomprehesible BS that's on the radio today, anyway!!
Just remember ... "I'll be watchin' you."
Now I can see that claim was unfounded aha
Had the Zombies (great call from you, John of Woburn, MA!) done it in their time, it would have been, at best, the B-side of some single. But the Zombies didn't have something that was available to Sting: MTV, and the demand for music videos. I'll grant you that the video was good (but it's silly compared to Thriller), but what would have become of this song--or, for that matter, the Police--without it?
Whether or not this song set a record for tenure at the top of the charts, the fact that it remained there as long as it did in 1983 doesn't say much for the popular musical culture of the 1980's. (Only reggae and early hip-hop were its only saving graces.)
This song is the prime example of what I've long believed: Sting is Bono without the talent. And I say that as someone who doesn't even care much for U2!
Then the man loses hope and goes into depression. I also feel its about not getting or achieving certain goals in life, regardless of your will. And in the end all the man in the song can do is hope.
Hes an arrogant sum-B Geordie bugger but a genius
songwriter nevertheless.
Just musings ! T
One of the best bands if not the best of the 80's.