Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland accuse Sting of not having shared royalties and credits on the 1983 song. A dispute that reopens old wounds in the band
There are songs that become immortal. “Every breath you take” is one of those: soundtrack of weddings, tormented loves, films and commercials. But behind the perfect patina of an unmistakable riff and a text that moves between romanticism and obsession, a war has been hiding that has lasted for decades. And now that war ended straight in a courtroom.
According to what reported by The Sun And Daily MailAndy Summers and Stewart Copeland have sued Sting – or rather Gordon Matthew Sumner, the name to the registry – with legal action at the London High Court. The accusation? Having ever received neither royalties nor co-writing credits for the 1983 song which, only to him, would still fride about 550,000 pounds a year today.
From stage to stamped cards
The break is not sudden. The legal case is only the last act of a fracture that has been dragged for years, fueled by divergent creative visions and a relationship always oscillating between rivalry and mutual respect. Nearby sources say that in recent years the lawyers of the parties have attempted an agreement out of the court several times, but each negotiation has been wrecked. “There was no alternative”, he confides a source close to Summers and Copeland, “they are convinced that they had been excluded from a millionaire gain to whom they had the right”.
Their request is clear: recognition and backward compensation for a song that is not only a milestone of pop-rock music, but a golden mine without expiry.
The long shadow of a planetary success
Published as the peak single of the album Synchronicity“Every Breath You Take” was the best -selling song of 1983 and the fifth of the whole decade. Won a Grammy for the Best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal And it continues to generate licenses, radio passages, use in TV series, films and advertising. It is one of those pieces that, like few others, have overcome the concept of “hit” to enter the collective memory, so much so that it is considered by BMI the most transmitted song in the history of the radio.
And it is precisely this success I continue to make the dispute so delicate: it is not an old forgotten song, but an evergreen that continues to produce money and prestige.
Jamaica, James Bond and an ambivalent text
Sting said he wrote the song in the Jamaican house that once belonged to Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bunt. “There is perhaps some of the ghost of James Bond in that song,” he said in an interview, underlining the double reading possible: romantic for some, disturbing for others. It is precisely this ambivalence, suspended between promise of love and obsessive control, that made the universal passage.
But while the interpretation remains open for the public, on the legal level the game is played on very concrete details: who has contributed to what, who holds the rights, who collects the royalties.
I Police: glory and fractures
Born in 1977, the Police engraved five albums and sold over 75 million copies worldwide. In addition to “Every Breath You Take”, they signed songs such as “Roxanne”, “Message in A Bottle” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”. They won five Grammy and influenced generations of musicians. But the coexistence between three strong personalities has never been simple: the creative tension that made them great is the same that led them to breakage in 1984.
The 2007-2008 reunion had deluded the fans that the old grudges were overcome. Today, however, the return to the front pages is linked to a millionaire litigation.
The epilogue still far away
Sting, Summers and Copeland have an extraordinary artistic history and enormous cultural heritage behind them. But if the music has joined them to create one of the most recognizable repertoires in the history of rock, now the judges of the High Court will decide who he has the right to what. In the meantime, “Every Breath You Take” continues to play everywhere, ironically reminding everyone – and perhaps also to the same protagonists – that Every breath you make, every move you do, I will be looking at you.
