Music

Song of the Day- June 13th

The Police-Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

Kevin Alexander
The Riff
Published in
2 min readJun 13, 2021

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Record cover for “Every Little Thing She does Is Magic” by The Police
Photo: Wikimedia
  • Album: Ghost In the Machine
  • Release date: 02. Nov. 1981
  • B-Side: “Flexible Strategies” (UK)/”Shambelle” (US)
  • Peak Chart Position: #3- Billboard Hot 100

Montserrat is a beautiful island that most people have never seen. So it seems fitting that one of the band’s biggest hits almost never saw the light of day.

In 1981, the band was on the island to record “Ghost In The Machine” at Geroge Martin’s famed AIR studio. Sting had brought along a demo version of the track he first created five years earlier but was met by resistance from bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland. Neither of them thought the softer tone and piano accompaniment met the definition of The Police “sound.”

Every little thing she does is magic
Everything she do just turns me on
Even though my life before was tragic
Now I know my love for her goes on

The band played around with a couple of different versions in an attempt to revamp the track into something more in line with their normal songs, but no-go. This version with session musician Jean Roussel would stick.

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Kevin Alexander
The Riff

Indie music journalist | Mixtape maker | EIC The Riff Magazine | Writer of the On Repeat Newsletter on Substack |