# In 1980, The Police wrote their most timeless song. Sting wishes it hadn’t aged so well

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/in-1980-the-police-wrote-their-most-timeless-song-sting-wishes-it-hadnt-aged-so-well/
- Published: 2026-11-04T17:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-05T07:09:01+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/1980-the-police-song-sting-wishes-hadnt-aged-well/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- ‘Driven to Tears’ addressed war, famine and poverty.
- Sting drew inspiration from footage of starving children in Biafra.
- The song reached number 35 on Billboard’s rock chart without a single release.

## Summary

Sting says he wishes The Police’s 1980 song ‘Driven to Tears’ had not remained so relevant, because its themes of war, famine and poverty persist. The song marked the band’s first move into political subject matter and showed that listeners were responding to its message as well as its music.

Sting traced the song’s inspiration to seeing television footage of starving children in Biafra during a US tour in 1979. Though it was not released as a single, radio airplay and word of mouth helped it reach number 35 on Billboard’s rock chart. In 2005, Sting questioned whether the world had made progress on genocide and whether people had become numb to images of suffering.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.