In 1983 The Police went #1 with "Every Breath You Take"!
From their album Synchronicity, it is widely considered to be Sting's signature song. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and became the band's only No. 1 hit. At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won for Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance, and to this day generates a third of Sting's music publishing income.
At the height of The Police's popularity Sting ran away to Jamaica, where he stayed at Ian Fleming's Goldeneye estate and wrote the song on the desk where so many Bond classics were written.
"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 realize at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control." Sting said of the lyric Every step you take, every move you make.
The video was a huge hit on MTV, where Sting is seen singing the song with a rather serious and angry look on his face.
"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." Sting said.
Take it as a love song or as a creepy stalker song, "Every Breath You Take" is one of the most iconic songs of the 80's and the biggest hit of The Police's glorious career.