"Every Breath You Take", The Police's chart-topping 1983 hit from the album Synchronicity, has resurfaced in public debate for two reasons: its lyrics are increasingly seen as depicting obsessive, possessive behaviour rather than romance, and it has become the subject of a royalties dispute among band members. Sting has said he wrote the song after waking with the phrase "I'll be watching you" in his head, inspired by surveillance and control themes of the Reagan era, and has since acknowledged he did not initially realise how "sinister" the words sound.

The track spent eight weeks at number one, won two Grammy Awards and remains The Police's most successful single, but bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland dispute Sting's account of writing it in half an hour, saying it was nearly discarded before Summers devised its distinctive guitar riff. Because the song is credited solely to Sting, he alone has received its songwriting royalties for decades; after repeated requests and failed settlement talks, Summers and Copeland filed a lawsuit against him in 2025 seeking a share of the earnings.