The Police almost abandoned their 1983 masterpiece after 10 days in the studio: “I can’t handle this”
The Police's iconic 1983 single "Every Breath You Take" was nearly never finished, as the band came close to abandoning its final album, Synchronicity, amid severe interpersonal tensions during recording at George Martin's AIR Studios in Montserrat. Engineer Hugh Padgham recalled bitter fights between Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland over the song's stripped-back arrangement, with ten days of studio work producing nothing usable, prompting a pivotal poolside meeting with the band's manager to decide whether the album would continue at all.
Sting wrote the song's core lyrics in a single half-hour burst after waking with the opening line in his head, later recording a solo demo before bringing it to the band. Clashes centred on Sting's insistence on a simple, unembellished drum part, which frustrated Copeland and led to repeated failed takes in a sweltering, air-conditioning-free studio. Despite the discord, and Copeland's later admission that the recording lacked "groove", the song became the biggest US and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and cementing itself as the band's defining, if often misunderstood, legacy.
- Synchronicity album nearly collapsed amid Police band tensions in 1983
- Sting and Copeland clashed fiercely over the song's drum arrangement
- Despite turmoil, it became The Police's biggest and most enduring hit
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Music was recorded partly on a home computer in the early 1980s, and this particular scenario centres on The Police recording their fifth and final studio album, Synchronicity, in 1983. The band consisted of Sting on bass and vocals, Stewart Copeland on drums, and Andy Summers on guitar; by this point their relationships had grown strained after years of touring and creative disagreements. The album was recorded at AIR Studios, a facility on the Caribbean island of Montserrat set up by Beatles producer George Martin.
"Every Breath You Take" was one of the tracks made during these sessions, and it went on to become one of the best-known songs of the decade, topping the US charts for two months in 1983. Despite its polished, minimal sound, the song is often remembered as a love song, though its lyrics are widely understood to describe obsessive surveillance rather than romance.
The people involved in telling this story include Sting, who wrote the song, Copeland, who played drums on it, and studio engineer Hugh Padgham, who worked alongside producer George Martin during the recording. Their differing accounts of the sessions matter because they shed light on how much conflict shaped a song that later became one of the most enduringly popular in pop history.