Rock and roll bands are often times just as famous for their interpersonal relationships as they are for their music. Sometimes creative forces butt heads together and the results can be spectacular feuds and blowouts. The Police were one such group. Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland are all master craftsman as musicians, but they grew to loathe each other.
After 5 albums in 6 years everything blew up for decades. Even though they got back together in the 00’s for some reunion tours, the hatchet may not be entirely buried thanks to Summers and Copeland filing a lawsuit against Sting for song royalties.
The Police had a number of hit songs, but one stands above the rest in terms of chart success and notoriety, “Every Breath You Take.” It was the band’s only number one hit on the Billboard 100 and it was a monster of a track. It has been sampled, covered, featured in films, television shows, and apparently nets Sting a reported $740,000 a year in royalties. Because he’s the only one credited as the writer of the song, he doesn’t share that with Copeland and Stewart. On the album that spawned the single, “Synchronicity,” Sting is credited as the writer of all the tracks except Summers’ “Mother,” and Copeland’s “Miss Gradenko.” Summers and Sting wrote “Murder by Numbers” together but no co-writing credit appears elsewhere.
According to the lawsuit that Summers and Copeland filed, they are stating they are owed royalties on the song. Why did it take forty something years for this to come to light? Good question. Reports indicated that this lawsuit “has been coming for quite some time” and that they previously tried to settle this out of court. How long has “some time” consisted of though? In Summers’ memoir, “One Train Later,” he describes coming up with the iconic guitar riff on the song that helped bring things together, but that’s obviously just his account.
It’ll be interesting to see what evidence Summers and Copeland can provide that prove they contributed to the writing of the song. If they can, and they did, then obviously they’ve got a pretty big chunk of change due to them. As for the case itself, we’ll be watching you to see how it turns out.
