WCSX Classic Cuts : Every Breath You Take

WCSX Classic Cuts

The Police: "Every Breath You Take"

The Hook: Keep it simple, stupid.

Album: Synchronicity

Year: 1983

Writer: Sting

Stats: Topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks.

The Background: Sometimes less is more and Police guitarist Andy Summers tells us that was definitely the case when they recorded "Every Breath You Take."

Police guitarist Andy Summers on how his simple riff brought Sting’s “Every Breath You Take” to life. OC:…had it. :29

”That was a song that Sting brought in and he had a huge synthesizer part for it that obviously wasn’t working. We had the tempo and the rhythm and where it was going, but that was all. And what we got down first was the bass and drums, to a simple, classic part. And then we tried so many things on it Sting just said to me, ‘Go in and make it your own.’ So I went in and immediately played this figure that I’d come up with and stopped everyone dead in their tracks, because the minute I put that guitar thing on the whole thing fell into place. Just with guitar, bass and drums we had it.”