Songfacts®:

• With The Police, Sting did lots of reggae-infused material - their second album, Reggatta de Blanc, means "white reggae." In 2017, he hooked up with the reggae star Shaggy to record an entire album, bonding over their love of Jamaica. The result was 44/876, and this island-reflected song was released as the first single. "Don't Make Me Wait" finds the duo opening their hearts to a girl, letting her know that they're ready to take this relationship to the next level, right now.
  
  Shaggy gets the first verse, where he lets her know that their brief fling means something much more to him. He delivers lines like "You know this is more to me than just hitting it," which wouldn't sound right coming from Sting, who is far more generic in his verse:
  
  Just tell me where I need to sign
  'Cause I've been searching for a while, girl
  And I know what works for me
  
  These guys come off a little desperate, but they seem sincere.
• Check out the Police song "So Lonely" to hear where he lifted some of his vocal melody on this track.
• Speaking with Rolling Stone, Shaggy remarked, "Doesn't that just sound like something that hundreds of women would get pregnant to?"
• Jamaicans got an early taste of this song when Shaggy played part of it on the air at Irie FM, the biggest radio station on the island, on January 3, 2018. Sting and Shaggy performed the song for the first time on January 6 at a charity concert in Kingston, Jamaica. It was posted to YouTube on January 24, and released globally on February 2.
• Sting and Shaggy sang a portion of this song at the Grammy Awards in 2018 as an interstitial during Sting's performance of "Englishman in New York." The pair also did a recorded bit with host James Cordon where they re-created his "Carpool Karaoke" in the New York subway.
• Sting & Shaggy express a willingness throughout the song to wait until their love interest is ready to move forward romantically.
  
  I don't want you to think I'm rushing you
  I know you like to take your time
  
  "I think it's apropos of the message of the moment," Sting told Billboard. "We need to listen to women's timetable and needs, because I know what women want: They want to be asked what they want. I've learned that and you need to respect that. It's an important conversation that needs to be had and learning needs to take place."
  
  "It's respectful to the female," Shaggy added. "Take the #MeToo out of it - let's talk about relationships between men and women. There's going to be a push and pull in every relationship. … I know this person is going to be my soul mate, but she says, 'I need more time.' By nature, women are more cautious than men. Men are like 'let's go.'"
• 44/876 won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.