"Every Breath You Take" is a song by the English rock band the Police from their fifth and final studio album Synchronicity (1983). Written by Sting, the single was the biggest American and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks (the band's only hit on that chart), and the Canadian RPM chart for two weeks. Their fifth UK No. 1, "Every Breath You Take" topped the UK singles chart for four weeks. It also reached the top 10 in numerous other countries. In May 2019, the song was recognised by BMI as being the most played song in radio history.
"Every Breath You Take" is the Police's and Sting's signature song, and in 2010, it was estimated to generate between a quarter and a third of Sting's music publishing income. At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, "Every Breath You Take" was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Record of the Year, winning in the first two categories. For the song, Sting received the 1983 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).
In the 1983 Rolling Stone critics' and readers' poll, "Every Breath You Take" was voted the "Song of the Year". In the United States, the song was the best-selling single of 1983 and the fifth-best-selling single of the decade. Billboard ranked it as the song for 1983. "Every Breath You Take" was ranked on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It also ranked number 25 on Billboards Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs. In 2008, Q magazine named the song among the top 10 British Songs of the 1980s. In 2015, "Every Breath You Take" was voted by the British public as The Nation's Favourite 1980s number one in a UK-wide poll for ITV.
Origins and songwriting
To escape the public eye, Sting retreated to the Caribbean. He started writing the song at Ian Fleming's writing desk on the Goldeneye estate in Oracabessa Bay, Jamaica. The lyrics are the words of a possessive lover who is watching "every breath you take; every move you make". Sting recalled:
When asked why he appears angry in the music video, Sting told BBC Radio 2, "I think the song is very, very sinister and ugly and people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle little love song, when it's quite the opposite. Hence so." Gary T. Marx, sociologist and scholar of surveillance studies, wrote in 1988 that, while the song was "a love rather than a protest song", it "nicely captures elements of the new surveillance". He compared the lines to various new technologies of surveillance, including linking "every breath you take" to breath analysers, "every step you take" to ankle monitors, and "every vow you break" to voice stress analysis.
According to the Phil Spector box-set book Back to Mono (1958–1969) (1991), "Every Breath You Take" is influenced by a Gene Pitney song titled "Every Breath I Take". The Hassles' 1967 song "Every Step I Take (Every Move I Make)," co-written by Billy Joel, also uses this rhyme. Led Zeppelin's song "D'yer Mak'er" (1973) also contains the words "every breath I take; every move I make".
In a 2000 interview, Copeland said Summers should get songwriting credit for "Every Breath You Take". In October 2023, Summers revealed that despite contributing the guitar riff that "has become a kind of immortal guitar part that all guitar players have to learn", he is still pursuing a "contentious" battle with Sting over "Every Breath You Take" songwriting credits. He said that the song was originally "going in the trash until I played on it." He also hinted at a legal battle over the song's songwriting credits. In August 2025, Copeland and Summers sued Sting and his publishing company Magnetic Publishing Limited for writing credits and lost royalties. In January 2026 Sting agreed to pay Copeland and Summers £600,000 after acknowledging underpaying royalties.
Recording
The demo of the song was recorded in an eight-track suite in North London's Utopia studios and featured Sting singing over a Hammond organ.
While recording, guitarist Andy Summers came up with a guitar part inspired by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók that would later become a trademark lick, and played it straight through in one take. He was asked to put guitar onto a simple backing track of bass guitar, drums, and a single vocal, with Sting offering no directive beyond "make it your own". Summers remembered: