"Every Breath You Take" is a song by the British rock band the Police from their album Synchronicity (1983). Written by Sting, the single was the biggest US and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks (the band's only hit on that chart), and the Canadian RPM Chart for four weeks. Their fifth UK No. 1, it topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. The song also reached the Top 10 in numerous other countries.
At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Record of the Year, winning in the first two categories. For the song, Sting received the 1983 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.
"Every Breath You Take" is the Police's and Sting's signature song, and in 2010 was estimated to generate between a quarter and a third of Sting's music publishing income. In May 2019, it was recognised by BMI as being the most played song in radio history. With nearly 15 million radio plays, Sting received a BMI Award at a ceremony held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills to mark it being the Most Performed Song in BMI's catalogue, a distinction previously held since 1999 by Spector, Mann and Weil's "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'. BMI President and CEO Mike O'Neill stated: "For the first time in 22 years, BMI has a new top song in our repertoire with Sting's timeless hit 'Every Breath You Take,' a remarkable achievement that solidifies its place in songwriting history."
In the 1983 Rolling Stone critics' and readers' poll, it was voted "Song of the Year". In the US, it was the best-selling single of 1983 and fifth-best-selling single of the decade. Billboard ranked it as the song for 1983. The song ranked on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It also ranked number 25 on Billboards Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs. In 2008, Q magazine named it among the top 10 British Songs of the 1980s. In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as The Nation's Favourite 1980s number one in a UK-wide poll for ITV.
Origins and songwriting
Sting wrote the song in 1982 in the aftermath of his separation from Frances Tomelty and the beginning of his relationship with Trudie Styler. Their split was controversial. As The Independent reported in 2006, "The problem was, he was already married – to actress Frances Tomelty, who just happened to be Trudie's best friend. Sting and Frances lived next door to Trudie in Bayswater, West London, for several years before the two of them became lovers. The affair was widely condemned."
To escape the public eye, Sting retreated to the Caribbean. He started writing the song at Ian Fleming's writing desk on the Goldeneye estate in Oracabessa, Jamaica. The lyrics are the words of a possessive lover who is watching "every breath you take; every move you make". Sting recalled:
When asked why he appears angry in the music video, Sting told BBC Radio 2, "I think the song is very, very sinister and ugly and people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle little love song, when it's quite the opposite. Hence so." Gary T. Marx, sociologist and scholar of surveillance studies, wrote in 1988 that, while the song was "a love rather than a protest song", it "nicely captures elements of the new surveillance". He compared the lines to various new technologies of surveillance, including linking "every breath you take" to breath analyzers, "every step you take" to ankle monitors, and "every vow you break" to voice stress analysis.
According to the Back to Mono box-set book, "Every Breath You Take" is influenced by a Gene Pitney song titled "Every Breath I Take". Led Zeppelin's song, "D'yer Mak'er" (1973), also contains the words "every breath I take; every move I make".
Recording
The demo of the song was recorded in an eight-track suite in North London's Utopia studios and featured Sting singing over a Hammond organ. A few months later, he presented the song to the other band members when they reconvened at George Martin's AIR Studios in Montserrat to work on the Synchronicity album. The band initially tried the song in a variety of different styles and arrangements, such as reggae.