Sting

Sting is a first class bass player, an instantly recognizable vocalist, a songwriter responsible for decades worth of hits, and an artist capable of exploring any genre - from pop to medieval folk -- and extracting gold. He began his career with the Police, who evolved from reggae-influenced new wavers to thoughtful pop craftsmen. He went solo after the trio's 1983 album Synchronicity and its accompanying hit "Every Breath You Take" turned the group into household names. The Dream of the Blue Turtles, his 1985 solo debut, expanded upon that success and its 1987 sequel Nothing Like the Sun consolidated it, the two albums laying the groundwork for an adventurous career that encompassed jazz, classical music, worldbeat, and stage musicals. Awards were plentiful even when the hit singles were few because Sting regularly collaborated with musicians from around the globe. His duets with Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams, Eric Clapton, Toby Keith, Aswad, Craig David, Mylene Farmer, and Mary J. Blige signaled not only his omnivorous taste -- many featured on the aptly titled 2021 compilation Duets -- but also his wide reach. Sting didn't abandon the mainstream -- he devoted his 2016 album 57th & 9th to snappy, well-crafted pop tunes, cut a full record with the reggae singer Shaggy in 2018, and then returned to pop on 2021's The Bridge -- but it was merely one facet in a career that was difficult to pigeonhole.

Born Gordon Sumner, Sting grew up near the shipyards of Wallsend, Northumberland, England, the eldest son of a milkman and a hairdresser. As a child, Sumner fell in love with music, but it took him a while to pursue it as a career. He worked odd jobs before earning an education degree. As he taught at Cramlington's St. Paul's First School, he moonlighted as a jazz musician in Newcastle, playing bass with the Newcastle Big Band and the Phoenix Jazzmen. While playing with the latter outfit, he became known for wearing yellow and black sweaters, which earned him the nickname "Sting" from fellow musician and bandleader Gordon Solomon.

Sting became Sumner's stage name around the time he began playing in the jazz fusion outfit Last Exit in 1975. Last Exit is where he started sharpening his skills as a songwriter and branching out into rock. The band released the "Whispering Voices" single in 1975 -- the song wasn't written by Sting but by keyboardist Gerry Richardson -- on the small label Wudwink and it caught the ear of Carol Wilson, who was working for the publishing division of Virgin Records' Richard Branson. Buoyed by this attention, the group moved to London but they fell apart shortly after this relocation. While some of his bandmates headed back to Newcastle, Sting stayed in London, seeking out Curved Air drummer Stewart Copeland in hopes of a collaboration. As it happened, Curved Air had just split, so the pair joined forces with the intent of breaking into London's thriving punk scene.

Adding guitarist Henri Padovani, Sting and Copeland formed a nascent version of the Police. By March 1, 1977, they played their first gig and by May, they released the "Fall Out"/"Nothing Achieving" single on Illegal Records, an imprint co-founded by Copeland's brother Miles; both sides of the 45 were written by Stewart. Around the time the "Fall Out" single hit the stores, Mike Howlett -- a bassist who had just left the prog rock outfit Gong -- invited Sting to join him and guitarist Andy Summers to play in a group called Strontium 90. Howlett planned to bring drummer Chris Cutler, a veteran of the challenging Henry Cow, into the fold but he had other commitments, so Sting drafted Copeland as the group's drummer. During the early summer of 1977, Strontium 90 recorded a demo and played a pair of concerts, including a debut at a Gong reunion show in Paris. Despite this activity, Strontium 90 dissolved quickly and Sting asked Summers to join the Police. The Police briefly existed as a quartet with both Summers and Padovani, but by August the new recruit insisted that he be the group's only guitarist. Shortly afterward, Padovani was dismissed and the Police became a trio.

The Police began gigging in earnest late in 1977, but the group found it difficult to build an audience. Strapped for cash, they agreed to play in a commercial for Wrigley's gum, dying their hair blond as part of the agreement. Although the spot never aired, the commercial wound up giving the group their distinctive bleached-blond look. Not long afterward, Copeland's brother Miles underwrote the recording of the band's debut, Outlandos d'Amour. Seeing potential in "Roxanne," Miles became the Police's manager and secured the group a deal with A&M Records.

Copeland managed to stir up some controversy regarding the single release of "Roxanne" and its successor "Can't Stand Losing You." Upon its April 1978 release, "Roxanne" never made it onto the BBC's playlists, which Copeland spun into the single being "Banned from the BBC" -- a label that stretched the truth but was slapped onto the initial singles of "Roxanne." Despite this commotion, the single didn't chart. "Can't Stand Losing You" wound up getting banned from the BBC due to the single's cover art -- a tongue-in-cheek depiction of suicide by hanging -- and the Police parlayed that into a modest 42 placement on the U.K. charts in late summer 1978. "So Lonely," the group's third single, didn't chart at all.

Britain may not have been paying attention to the band but where the Police were gaining traction was in North America. "Roxanne" wound up cracking the Top 40 in both the U.S. and Canada in early 1979, which at that time was a rarity for punk bands. The stateside success was enough to get "Roxanne" re-released in the U.K., where it went to 12, followed by a number two placement for the re-release of "Can't Stand Losing You." With some chart momentum on their side -- they were popular enough to have a re-release of "Fall Out" scrape the U.K. singles chart -- the Police embarked on an extensive American tour, completing a new album in the meantime. Entitled Reggatta de Blanc, their second album went to number one upon its October 1979 release, partially on the strength of the number one singles "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon." Neither single charted in the U.S. Top 40 -- the latter made it all the way to 74 -- but Regatta de Blanc still climbed to number 25 on the Billboard Top 200, while its title track snagged the group their first Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

The Police scored another U.K. hit in February 1980 when "So Lonely" reached six upon its re-release, but the year is better remembered as the group's international breakthrough thanks to Zenyatta Mondatta. Delivered in October 1980, the record reached number one in the U.K. and number five in the U.S., with its first single, "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da Da," becoming the group's first American Top 10 hit; in the U.K., it was the record's second single, reaching number five. "Don't Stand So Close to Me," released as Zenyatta Mondatta's first single in the U.K. and as its second in the US, eclipsed its companion, reaching number one in the U.K. and a Duo or Group With Vocal. "Behind My Camel," an album track from Zenyatta Mondatta, also earned the trio the Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance that year.

High on their chart success, the Police headed to Montserrat to record their fourth album with producer Hugh Padgham. The resulting Ghost in the Machine appeared in the fall of 1981, topping the U.K. charts and scaling its way to number two in the U.S. The rise of Ghost in the Machine was fueled by "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," a Top Ten hit throughout the world which was also a staple on MTV. "Spirits in the Material World" was another international hit, reaching 11 in the U.S. and 12 in the U.K., while "Invisible Sun" reached number two in the U.K. Ghost in the Machine also increased the Police's presence on album rock radio, as evidenced by "Secret Journey" reaching 46 in the U.S.

During the reign of Ghost in the Machine, the individual members of the Police seized the opportunities brought by success. Sting resumed the acting career he attempted to launch in 1979, when he appeared in Franc Roddam's silver screen adaptation of the Who's rock opera Quadrophenia. He appeared in the film Brimstone and Treacle -- its soundtrack featured three new Police songs, including a "I Burn for You" -- and had a key role in David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. Copeland was also drawn to Hollywood, composing the score for Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish. Meanwhile, Summers collaborated with Robert Fripp for the 1982 LP I Advance Masked.

All this success was dwarfed by Synchronicity, the 1983 album that turned into a multi-million blockbuster. Much of that success was due to "Every Breath You Take," an ominous ballad that topped the charts in both the U.S. and U.K. "Every Breath You Take" became an instant standard, winning the Grammy for Song of the Year along with Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. BMI would later name "Every Breath You Take" its most performed song, as it racked up over 15 million radio plays. The ballad wasn't the only hit on Synchronicity. "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "King of Pain" both reached the Top 10 in the U.S. -- the former only went to 17 in the U.K. -- and "Synchronicity II" turned into a hit on MTV and the radio, peaking at 16 on the Top 40; "Synchronicity II" also took home the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.

Synchronicity dominated 1983, spending 17 weeks on the top of the U.S. charts, vying for the position with Michael Jackson's Thriller. The Police supported the album with a stadium tour that spilled into 1984, but Sting started to grow restless with the trio. Following the tour's completion in March 1984, the group went on hiatus. Sting turned his attention to recording his debut, The Dream of the Blue Turtles. Working with a group featuring Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, and Omar Hakim represented something of a return to roots for Sting, but its jazz inclinations illustrated his range. In America, "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" and "Fortress Around Your Heart" gave Sting two Top Ten hits, while "Love Is the Seventh Wave" and "Russians" charted at 17 and 16 on Billboard's Top 40, respectively. The record didn't fare quite as well in the U.K.: "Russians," the last single pulled from the album, was its biggest hit, reaching 12, while "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" peaked at 26 and the other two singles didn't crack the Top 40. Despite this underperformance on the charts, Sting was inescapable throughout 1985. He sang the "I want my MTV" refrain on Dire Straits' smash hit "Money for Nothing," he cameoed on records by Phil Collins, Miles Davis, and Arcadia alike, he appeared on Hal Willner's Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill tribute album and he took his Dream of the Blue Turtles out on the road on a tour that was captured on Michael Apted's documentary Bring on the Night, which was released toward the end of the year. The soundtrack to the film was released in 1986 and the video release took home the Grammy for Best Music Video, Long Form at the 1987 ceremony.

The Police reconvened in June 1986 to play three concerts on the Amnesty International: A Conspiracy of Hope tour, which led to the group attempting to record a new album that July. Prior to heading into the studio, Copeland broke his collarbone in a horse riding accident. The injury exacerbated simmering tensions within the group and the trio wound up completing just one track: a new version of "Don't Stand So Close to Me." Attached as a new track on the compilation Every Breath You Take: The Singles, and the song was a modest hit. Following its release, the band separated, this time for good.

Sting wasted no time in returning to his solo career, completing his second solo album, Nothing Like the Sun. A double album that ran the length of a full CD -- a rarity at the time -- Nothing Like the Sun found Sting expanding his horizons, collaborating with the legendary jazz arranger Gil Evans and deepening his interests in worldbeat. None of this could be heard on its funky first single "We'll Be Together," which wound up climbing to seven in the U.S. The "Be Still My Beating Heart" made it to 15 in the U.S. but in the U.K., none of the album's singles entered the Top 40; a Ben Liebrand remix of "Englishman in New York" belatedly went to 15 in 1990. Despite the lack of big hits, Nothing Like the Sun won the award for Best British Album at the 1988 Brit Awards, and it was a multi-platinum hit throughout Europe and in the U.S.

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