Hello Laguna Patrons!
I mentioned on the show that the album Synchronicity by The Police is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this week.
The final record from this prominent trio of the 1980s would sell over 10 million copies, earn numerous awards (including two Grammys), and is enshrined in the National Recording Registry by The Library Of Congress for sonic posterity.
While the album would spawn five singles, the first cut released in May of 1983, “Every Breath You Take,” is a statistical anomaly and a haunting piece of music.
This slightly uptempo ballad of obsession was composed by Sting while sitting at the desk of James Bond author Ian Fleming. The Police had rented Fleming’s Jamaica estate (named Goldeneye) for the early stages of writing and recording what would become Synchronicity.
The song would eventually become a global phenomenon, regarded as one of the best-crafted pieces of music ever.
“Every Breath You Take” is everywhere, especially, and even to this day, on the radio.
Its structure and accessibility by a broad audience make the song a chameleon able to blend seamlessly into almost any music format.
According to radiofiedelity.com, it is the most-played song in the medium’s history, with over 15 million spins worldwide as of 2022.
Let’s break that down;
The album version of “EBYT” is 4:13, while the single is 3:56. For our purposes, we will say the song is about four minutes long.
Since 1983, it has played some 60 million minutes over the air.
That’s a million hours or roughly 114 years straight of airplay.
These figures do not count streaming, Youtube, or satellite
Currently, around the world, “EBYT” averages a few hundred plays on terrestrial radio daily.
The only other song remotely close to this achievement is Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” with over 10 million radio plays since 1967.
As I write this article, the tune is playing on WGHN.
Given the omnipresence of “Every Breath You Take” in our ears, culture, and lives, Gordon Sumner’s lyrics were so hauntingly accurate,
“Every step you take, I’ll be watching you.”
Picture Courtesy A&M Records.
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