More than 40 years after Every Breath You Take topped the charts, the bitter feud between Sting and his former Police bandmates has spilled back into court.
Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland have filed a lawsuit in London’s High Court claiming they should be recognised — and paid — as co-writers of the 1983 classic, one of the most played songs in radio history.
The case marks an extraordinary new chapter in one of rock’s most fractious relationships. The Police were notorious for their internal conflicts, but this is the first time the dispute over songwriting credits has gone before a judge.
A song with no mystery — except who owns it
There is little debate about the song’s origins. Sting has always said he wrote the words, chords and melody in one burst of inspiration while staying in Jamaica. His original demo is almost identical to the released version on the band’s Synchronicity album.
What Summers and Copeland now argue is that their contributions — in particular Summers’ distinctive guitar arpeggio riff — transformed the track from a rough sketch into a timeless hit. Summers has described his part as rescuing the song from “going in the trash”.
Sting, for his part, has acknowledged that Summers added his stamp but insists the structure and composition were his alone. The line between songwriting and arranging has long been one of the music industry’s thorniest disputes, and the Police’s case has brought it into sharp relief.
The financial stakes are enormous. Since its release, Every Breath You Take has generated millions in royalties. It was declared the most played song in radio history by BMI in 2019, and it enjoyed a second life when Puff Daddy (now Diddy) reworked it into 1997’s global chart-topper I’ll Be Missing You.
In 2022 Sting sold the rights to his entire catalogue — solo and Police — to Universal Music for an estimated $250m. Any change to the credits could force a renegotiation of royalties on one of the most valuable catalogues in popular music.
The lawsuit is just the latest skirmish in a long war. Recording sessions for Synchronicity were fraught, with fistfights breaking out in the studio. Sting and Copeland once clashed so violently that Sting performed much of the subsequent tour with a broken rib.
Despite their musical chemistry, the band split soon after the album’s release, citing irreconcilable tensions. They reunited only briefly, most notably for a lucrative 2007 world tour.
The case also highlights how publishing revenues have become even more critical as album sales and traditional income streams have dwindled. For veteran musicians, song credits determine not only their income but also their legacy.
Summers has long suggested he deserved a share. “That riff has become a kind of immortal guitar part that all guitar players have to learn,” he said last year. “It should have been recognised.”
The irony is that the song itself, often mistaken for a romantic ballad, is in fact about obsession and control. “It’s quite wicked,” Sting once said. He even wrote a follow-up — If You Love Somebody Set Them Free — as an antidote to what he described as the “poison” of the original.
Now, four decades on, the song’s dark subtext has been matched by a bitter legal row that shows no sign of ending.
Whether Summers and Copeland can persuade a court that their contributions amount to songwriting rather than arrangement remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the war inside The Police is far from over, and one of the world’s most famous love songs continues to leave a trail of acrimony in its wake.
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Sting to face fresh legal battle with The Police over ‘Every Breath You Take’