WCSX Classic Cuts : Roxanne
WCSX Classic Cuts
The Police: “Roxanne”
The Hook: Stood out from the rest of the band’s punk rock songs enough to get them their record deal.
Album: Outlandos D’Amour
Year: 1978
Writer: Sting
Stats: Peaked at number-32 on the Billboard Hot 100
Background: When they first began, The Police thought of themselves as a punk band and their material reflected it. Drummer Stewart Copeland credits their manager, who happened to be his brother Miles, for seeing past the pose and finding the song that would kick-start their career.
Police drummer Stewart Copeland on “Roxanne.” OC:…record deal. :30
“‘Roxanne’ started out as a punk tune. It used to go [Sings]. But all the other songs did that, so we thought, ‘Why don’t we try this one half-tempo?’ We never really considered it one of those important tunes, because it was one of our slow songs, which have no place in the punk repertoire. But recording our album, we were short of material anyway, so we recorded it. Our manager came down and we played him all the dime-a-dozen punk-a-rama. But he heard this one song and he said, ‘This is really unique. I can take this song and I can get you guys a record deal.’”