“You belong to me”
Why “Every Breath You Take” remains misunderstood
In May 1983, The Police released “Every Breath You Take,” the first single off of their final album. The song quickly rose up the charts, peaking at number one. It remains their biggest hit. The groove and melody are upbeat and soothing, but when you take a deeper look inside the lyrics, the song can seem quite sinister.
“Oh, can’t you see
You belong to me?”
When Sting delivers these lyrics in the chorus, the song’s meaning changes from a caring devotion to a dark obsession.
In 1982, Sting wrote the song after he separated from his wife, Frances Tomelty and his own feelings were conflicted.
“It has something about it that people respond to and that it seems at first like a very romantic kind of seductive song,” Sting explains, “which is what I initially intended it to be, but then when you listen to it, you realize there’s a compulsion behind it to the point of obsession where it becomes quite sinister” (BBC).
“Every breath you take
And every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you”
This obsession makes Sting feel like he needs constant control and surveillance over his wife. The song was recorded at the end of the Cold War with paranoia rising. While the lyrics do not mention the Cold War, it is still something to note.
The instrumentation isn’t original, according to Sting: “It’s not in the least bit original it, you know, it has a standard chord sequence which is probably nicked off ‘Stand by Me’…the lyrics you could get from a rhyming dictionary, you know, make, take, fake, wake” (BBC).
While it isn’t original, it’s simple, which is all you sometimes need to make a great song. “Sometimes I’ll spend months and months on a song making it very technical musically and lyrically, and I don’t get anywhere. Sometimes the simplest song is the best. Being simple is not easy, though” (BBC).
However, everyone who listens to it can take its meaning differently. Sting states, “I think it’s whatever it means to you, it means that’s what the meaning is but for me, it has this double edge thing, and I think it’s pretty powerful, you know? Still what people want to hear” (BBC).
The Police were crumbling before releasing the single. Fights and arguments happened often and even got to the point where the producer threatened to end the production entirely. After the song was released, the band realized that this was the peak of their music and decided to split up, sending Sting off into his solo career. Nonetheless, how “Every Breath You Take” was written and produced was exciting. Its simple yet double-edged meaning is something uncommon within a piece. Especially when the music is one of the biggest hits of the 80s, the impact “Every Breath You Take” has on its viewers only adds to its greatness.
