{"id":181,"date":"2026-01-05T08:35:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T08:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/?p=181"},"modified":"2026-01-05T08:36:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T08:36:05","slug":"10-facts-about-the-polices-synchronicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsliked.online\/?p=181","title":{"rendered":"10 Facts About The Police’s ‘Synchronicity’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming into their fifth and final album, 1983\u2019s\u00a0Synchronicity<\/em>, The Police were on the verge of something big. Their previous LP, 1981\u2019s\u00a0Ghost In the Machine<\/em>, had peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and yielded the Top 5 smash \u201cEvery Little Thing She Does Is Magic.\u201d Now the reggae-inspired, formerly punk-adjacent English trio led by Sting was poised for a level of stardom that few groups can even dream about.<\/p>\n

Synchronicity<\/em>\u2014released 40 years ago this June\u2014definitely delivered on its promise. On the strength of three Top 10 singles, one of them being the decade-defining, chart-topping,\u00a0frequently misunderstood<\/a>\u00a0\u201cEvery Breath You Take,\u201d\u00a0Synchronicity<\/em>\u00a0reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and held that slot for 17 non-consecutive weeks. (It also reached No. 1 in the UK.) More importantly, it showcased a musically and intellectually curious band that was able to create great music despite some serious interpersonal conflicts.<\/p>\n

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Here are 10 facts about The Police\u2019s blockbuster swan song.<\/p>\n

1. The band members were\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0on good terms.<\/h2>\n

Sessions for 1981\u2019s\u00a0Ghost In the Machine<\/em>\u00a0went pretty smoothly. Sting came in with the song ideas; then guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland added their distinctive parts. But that changed with\u00a0Synchronicity:<\/em>\u00a0The three of them were \u201csick of each other,\u201d as producer Hugh Padgham\u00a0told\u00a0Sound on Sound<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSting and Stewart hated each other, and although Andy didn\u2019t show as much venom, he could be quite grumpy\u2014and there were both verbal and physical fights in the studio,\u201d Padgham said. Eventually, Police manager Miles Copeland presided over a poolside meeting that saved the sessions from disintegrating.<\/p>\n

2. Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland actually worked in separate rooms.<\/h2>\n
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The Police recorded\u00a0Synchronicity<\/em>\u00a0at Beatles producer George Martin\u2019s AIR facility on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. Sting played bass in the control room, Summers strummed in the studio\u2019s live room, and Copeland whacked his drums in a dining room upstairs. According to Hugh Padgham, this arrangement \u201cworked both sonically and for social reasons.\u201d It kept the warring musicians apart, and it ensured that there was no bleed between the guitar and bass during recording. Plus, Copeland\u2019s drums sounded best in the dining area, even if he could only see his bandmates via live video feed.<\/p>\n

3. The album\u2019s title was inspired by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung.<\/h2>\n

Sting has a reputation for being one of rock\u2019s leading intellectuals, and he proved it once again with\u00a0Synchronicity<\/em>. The title nods to famed Swiss psychiatrist\u00a0Carl Jung<\/a>\u2019s 1960 book\u00a0Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle<\/em>, which deals with the \u201cmeaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved.\u201d In Jung\u2019s view, some coincidences\u00a0aren\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0coincidences\u2014they\u2019re something more\u2014and as Sting told the radio show\u00a0In the Studio<\/em>, he wanted the entire album to focus on this idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept interested me in that it was about accidents and some of the greatest things that happen in music with a band are accidental, or apparently accidental,\u201d he said. Sting can even be seen reading Jung\u2019s book on the\u00a0Synchronicity<\/em>\u00a0album cover<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Synchronicity<\/em>\u00a0was the beginning of the end for The Police.<\/h2>\n

Although it was based on the writings of Jung\u2014the man behind the theory of the \u201ccollective unconscious<\/a>\u201d\u2014Synchronicity<\/em>\u00a0was an intensely personal album for the newly divorced Sting. \u201c\u2018Every Breath You Take,\u2019 \u2018Wrapped Around Your Finger\u2019 were all about my life,\u201d Sting told\u00a0In the Studio<\/em>. \u201cAnd so that was the end of The Police because I realized that I couldn\u2019t involve this kind of personal work in a democratic process, at least not about the issues. So it was very clear to me during the making of this record this was the end of The Police.\u201d<\/p>\n

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5. Sting wrote many of the songs in a very famous house.<\/h2>\n
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Sting may have been in a fragile mental state when he wrote his songs for\u00a0Synchronicity<\/em>, but at least his body was in a peaceful place:\u00a0James Bond<\/a>\u00a0creator\u00a0Ian Fleming<\/a>\u2019s Goldeneye estate on the northern Jamaican coast. \u201cBritain had gone to war with Argentina over the Falklands,\u201d\u00a0Sting wrote<\/a>\u00a0in his book\u00a0Lyrics<\/em>. \u201cYoung men were dying in the freezing waters of the South Atlantic, while I was gazing at sunspots on a clifftop overlooking the Caribbean.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Summers worked through some mommy issues on \u201cMother.\u201d<\/h2>\n

Synchronicity<\/em>\u00a0includes the super-catchy hit singles \u201cI\u2019ll Be Watching You,\u201d \u201cWrapped Around Your Finger,\u201d and \u201cKing of Pain.\u201d It also features \u201cMother,\u201d an abrasive, spoken-word track by Summers. Over the course of three unsettling minutes, Summers rants about his mom phoning him all the time and generally threatening to \u201cdevour\u201d him\u2014a fear that may stem from this lyric: \u201cEvery girl I go out with becomes my mother in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Summers\u00a0told Songfacts<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cMother\u201d was inspired by his actual mother. \u201cWe all have our family situations, and I had a pretty intense mother who was very focused on me,\u201d he said. \u201cI was sort of \u2018the golden child,\u2019 and there I was, sort of fulfilling all of her dreams by being this pop star in The Police. I got a certain amount of pressure from her. It\u2019s not heavy\u2014it was written kind of ironic, to be kind of funny, but crazy. It\u2019s inspired a little bit by Captain Beefheart. It\u2019s something that\u2019s really off-the-wall.\u201d The weirdest part: Sting apparently loved it.<\/p>\n

7. \u201cWrapped Around Your Finger\u201d references Greek mythology.<\/h2>\n