Paranoid excluded, not every hit single is bashed out in mere moments, and The Police’s 1982 chart-smasher Every Breath You Take is proof.
Now, 42 years after the song began its radio domination, Sting’s initial solo demo has surfaced, underlining how important Andy Summers’ role was in injecting the track with a little je ne sais quoi.
Speaking to Guitarist in 2022, Summers said the song’s iconic riff “has become a kind of immortal guitar part that all guitar players have to learn”, and hearing it sans Summer’s nimble arpeggios, the song certainly feels incomplete.
“One of the reasons we became so popular was because we didn’t sound like anybody else,” Summers said in that same interview, believing the band was better as a sum of its parts. “It was the unique chemistry of three particular individuals. One different [band member] and it would never have sounded like that.”
The demo, which has a more upbeat feel thanks to the bubbling – if not a little cheesy – keyboard lines, was recorded by Sting at North London’s Utopia Studios in late 1982. But it nearly didn’t get beyond that stage.
“That song was going to be thrown out,” Summers revealed. “Sting and Stewart [Copeland] could not agree on how the bass and drums were going to go.”
Fortunately, the song was spared a place on the scrapheap as Summers leant a hand in helping the song reach its full potential.
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“We were in the middle of Synchronicity and Sting says, ‘Well, go on then, go in there and make it your own.’ …It was crap until I played on it,” he continues.
Every Breath You Take (Demo) – YouTube
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“And I did it in one take. They all stood up and clapped. And, of course, the fucking thing went right round the world, straight to No. 1 in America.”
Summers has never received a songwriting credit for his contributions, which ultimately saved the song – a subject that remains contentious. Last year, the guitarist even hinted at a lawsuit, although this has yet to surface publicly.
It wasn’t just the addition of Summers’ parts that proved make or break, however. As Stewart Copeland told Classic Pop in 2018, removing the keyboards helped the band reaffirm their identity on the song.
The Police – Every Breath You Take (Official Music Video) – YouTube
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“The demo was obviously a hit, but it was nothing like the current version, as Sting was singing the chords over a Hammond organ,” he said. “Andy went, ‘Guys, hello? We’re a guitar band?’ Andy is truly clever with harmony and worked out the song’s arpeggiated guitar figure.”
Echoing that sentiment in a chat with Total Guitar, Summers said: “One of the things I loved about playing in The Police was that it was all guitar all the time! But it needed someone like me to fill that out.”
It’s a role Summers discussed in detail during a recent interview with Rick Beato, during which he also recalled an “outrageous” impromptu jam with Jimi Hendrix.
The demo’s release comes as part of a new six-CD Synchronicity boxset featuring b-sides, alternate takes, demos, and live recordings from across The Police’s career, as well as a 64-page booklet.
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