"Every Breath You Take" is a song by the Englishrock bandthe Police from their fifth and final studio albumSynchronicity (1983). Written bySting, the single was the biggest American and Canadian hit of 1983, topping theBillboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks (the band's onlyNo. 1 hit on that chart), and the CanadianRPM chart for two weeks. Their fifth UK No. 1, "Every Breath You Take" topped theUK singles chart for four weeks. It also reached the top 10 in numerous other countries. In May 2019, the song was recognised byBMI as being the most played song in radio history.[6][7]
To escape the public eye, Sting retreated to the Caribbean. He started writing the song atIan Fleming's writing desk on theGoldeneye estate inOracabessa Bay,Jamaica.[15] The lyrics are the words of a possessive lover who is watching "every breath you take; every move you make". Sting recalled:
I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and had written it in half an hour. The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realise at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking ofBig Brother, surveillance and control.[16]
When asked why he appears angry in the music video, Sting toldBBC 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."[17]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" tobreath analysers, "every step you take" toankle monitors, and "every vow you break" tovoice stress analysis.[18]
Thedemo of the song was recorded in an eight-track suite inNorth London's Utopia studios and featured Sting singing over aHammond organ.[2] A few months later, he presented the song to the other band members when they reconvened atGeorge Martin'sAIR Studios inMontserrat to work on theSynchronicity album. The band initially tried the song in a variety of different styles and arrangements, such asreggae.[19][20]
While recording, guitaristAndy Summers came up with a guitar part inspired by the Hungarian composerBéla Bartók that would later become a trademark lick, and played it straight through in one take. He was asked to put guitar onto a simple backing track of bass guitar, drums, and a single vocal, with Sting offering no directive beyond "make it your own".[21] Summers remembered:
This was a difficult one to get, because Sting wrote a very good song, but there was no guitar on it. He had this Hammond organ thing that sounded likeBilly Preston. It certainly didn't sound like the Police, with that big, rolling synthesizer part. We spent about six weeks recording just the snare drums and the bass. It was a simple, classic chord sequence, but we couldn't agree how to do it. I'd been makingan album withRobert Fripp, and I was kind of experimenting with playingBartok violin duets and had worked up a new riff. When Sting said 'go and make it your own', I went and stuck that lick on it, and immediately we knew we had something special.[22]
The recording process was fraught with difficulties as personal tensions between the band members, particularly Sting and drummerStewart Copeland, came to the fore.[2] ProducerHugh Padgham claimed that by the time of the recording sessions, Sting and Copeland "hated each other", with verbal and physical fights in the studio common.[2] The tensions almost led to the recording sessions being cancelled until a meeting involving the band and the group's manager,Miles Copeland (Stewart's brother), resulted in an agreement to continue.[2]
The drum track was largely created through separateoverdubs of each percussive instrument, with the kick drum coming from the box for theOberheim DMX drum machine while the main backbeat was created by simultaneously playing a snare and aTamagong drum.[2] To give the song more liveliness, Padgham asked Copeland to record his drum part in the studio's dining room in order to achieve some "special sound effects". The room, however, was so hot that Copeland's drum sticks had to be taped to his hands to avoid slippage.[2]
Some piano accompaniment of a single repeating note was added to complete the song'sbridge.[2] Padgham remembered that the band had "agonized over that part for a long time" and that the song "never really had a proper bridge" in its demo form.[23] He said that Sting entered the recording studio with a few piano ideas where he "bang[ed] away on the same note".[2][19] Padgham expressed his approval of the piano part, having been reminded of a single note guitar solo from his work producingXTC, and encouraged Sting to use the idea on "Every Breath You Take".[2]
Cashbox described the song as "a subtly crafted minorkey ballad" (although the song is actually in A♭ major tuned to A=432 Hz) and commented on the effect of the "surprising, smokey smooth feel [of the vocal] above the band's patently insistent rhythmic drive."[24]
The Police in the black-and-white music video for "Every Breath You Take", with a silhouetted man washing a large window behind Stewart Copeland in the background. CinematographerDaniel Pearl won the firstMTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography in a Video with this music video.
The song had amusic video (directed by duoGodley & Creme) loosely based onGjon Mili's short filmJammin' the Blues (1944). Shot inblack and white with a navy blue tint, the video depicts the band, accompanied by a pianist and string section, performing the song in a darkened ballroom as a man washes the floor-to-ceiling window behind them. Sting performs his part ondouble bass rather thanbass guitar.
The video was praised for itscinematography;MTV (1999),Rolling Stone (1993), andVH1 (2001) named it one of the best music videos ever, placing it 16th, 61st, & 33rd in their respective top 100 lists.Daniel Pearl won the firstMTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography in a Video for his work on the video.[25] Released in the early days of MTV, "Every Breath You Take" was one of the earliest videos to enter heavy rotation, which significantly contributed to the song's popularity. American singer-songwriterRichard Marx remembers that "the first video I watched over and over was 'Every Breath You Take'. It was like seeing aBergman film. Directors usually spelled out every word of the lyrics in a video, but this was the first video I knew that didn't do that. It was abstract." According toA&M Vice President of Marketing and Creative ServicesJeff Ayeroff, "[The video for] 'Every Breath You Take' probably cost $75,000 to $100,000, and we sold over 5 million albums. With a good video, the return on your investment was phenomenal."[26]
On 5 October 2022,Billboard officially released a statement confirming that the music video for "Every Breath You Take" surpassed one billion views onYouTube.[27] As of February 2026, the video has over 1.6 billion view on YouTube.[28]
"Every Breath You Take" was released as a single in 1983, withB-side "Murder by Numbers" – a composition by Summers and Sting that had been omitted from the vinyl release ofSynchronicity in favour of Copeland's "Miss Gradenko" due toLP length limitations,[29] only appearing as the final track on theCD andcassette. It reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Israel, Ireland, and South Africa. In Canada, it spent four weeks at No. 1 and an additional six weeks at No. 2. It also reached No. 2 in Spain, Sweden, Norway and Australia, while reaching the Top 10 in most other Western, Northern and Southern European countries.
In the 1983Rolling Stone critics and readers poll, it was voted "Song of the Year". In the US, it was thebest-selling single of 1983 and fifth-best-selling single of the decade.Billboard ranked it as theNo. 1 song for 1983.[10]
The single became the biggest US and Canadian hit of 1983, topping theBillboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks (the band's onlyNo. 1 hit on that chart). It also topped theBillboardTop Tracks chart for nine weeks.
In 1999, "Every Breath You Take" was listed as one of the Top 100 Songs of the Century byBMI.[31][32][self-published source?] In May 2019, BMI updated the list and "Every Breath You Take" was recognised as the Most Performed Song in BMI's catalogue, a distinction previously held by "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" bythe Righteous Brothers.[6] In 2003,VH1 ranked the song the No. 2 greatestbreakup song. As of 2003, Sting was making an average of $2,000 per day in royalties for the song.[33]
In October 2007, Sting was awarded a Million-Air certificate for nine million airplays of "Every Breath You Take" at theBMI Awards show in London.[34]
"Every Breath You Take" is the Police's and Sting'ssignature song, and in 2010 was estimated to generate between a quarter and a third of Sting'smusic publishing income.[8] In May 2019, it was recognised byBMI as being the most played song in radio history.[6][7] With nearly 15 million radio plays, Sting received aBMI Award at a ceremony held at theBeverly Wilshire Hotel inBeverly Hills, California to mark it being the Most Performed Song in BMI's catalogue. 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."[6]
In my humble opinion, this is Sting's best song with the worst arrangement. I think Sting could have had any other group do this song and it would have been better than our version – except for Andy's brilliant guitar part. Basically, there's an utter lack ofgroove. It's a totally wasted opportunity for our band. Even though we made gazillions off of it, and it's the biggest hit we ever had, when I listen to this recording, I think "God, what a bunch of assholes we were!"[22]
The song was played during the last scene of the 2019The Blacklistseason 6 episode "Lady Luck", during which the protagonistRaymond Reddington, with his friendDembe Zuma, visit a school which he is been donating to and listens to its choir singing it. The song can be understood as a metaphor for the overall control that Reddington exerts overElizabeth Keen's life.[39]
In the same interview, Copeland said Summers should get songwriting credit for "Every Breath You Take". In October 2023, Summers revealed that despite contributing the guitar riff that "has become a kind of immortal guitar part that all guitar players have to learn", he is still pursuing a "contentious" battle with Sting over "Every Breath You Take" songwriting credits. He said that the song was originally "going in the trash until I played on it." He also hinted at a legal battle over the song's songwriting credits. "Watch the press; let's see what happens in the next year. That's all I can tell you."[40][41] In August 2025, Copeland and Summers sued Sting and his publishing company Magnetic Publishing Limited for writing credits and lostroyalties.[42]
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. † Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.
^"The Hot 100: The All-Time, Top-Charting Songs Of The Last Five Decades".Billboard: The International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment. No. 38. New York: 14. 20 September 2008. p. 14.
^Kent, David (1993).Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 235.ISBN0-646-11917-6. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed byARIA between mid-1983 and 12 June 1988.
^Pennanen, Timo (2006).Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 [Includes hits – records and performers on Finnish music charts since 1972] (in Finnish). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava.
^"Classifiche".Musica e dischi (in Italian). Retrieved4 June 2022.Select "Singoli" in the "Tipo" field, type "Police" in the "Artista" field and press "cerca".
