There’s a distinct lack of synchronicity in the Police camp. Per U.K. reports, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland are suing vocalist/bassist Sting in London’s High Court under the “general commercial contracts and arrangements” category, claiming they are owed millions in royalties.
The specific details of the filing have not been made public, but the case appears to include claims regarding the hit Synchronicity single “Every Breath You Take,” which was one of the most commercially successful and ubiquitous songs of the 1980s. Sting has been listed as the song’s co-writer since its release, but Summers has long complained that he wrote its signature guitar figure and was never properly credited or compensated.
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Sting is listed as a defendant in the filing under his real name, Gordon Sumner, as is his company Magnetic Publishing Limited. In a bizarre twist, Sting and Summers appear together on a jazzy, updated version of the 1983 song “Murder by Numbers” from jazz star Christian McBride’s Without Further Ado, Vol. 1, which will be released Friday (Aug. 29). Since the Police, who split for good in 1986, made no new music during their 2007-8 reunion tour or afterwards, the collaboration the first between members of the group since Sting played on Summers’ 1990 album Charming Snakes.
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time “Every Breath You Take” has been at the center of controversy. In 2023, now-disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs said he still pays Sting $5,000 per day for the rest of his life for having utilized a sample of the song without first properly clearing it for use on his own 1997 Notorious B.I.G. tribute “I’ll Be Missing You.”
Whether anyone actually believed the story is up for debate — if true, that amount would equate to a $1.825 million per year windfall for Sting and Sting alone, although other reports indicate that number is closer to $741,000 annually. Sting told Rolling Stone in 2003 that he was first alerted to the unauthorized Diddy sample by Elton John, who exclaimed to him, “You gotta hear it — you’re gonna be a millionaire.” The artist added, perhaps now regrettably, that he “put a couple of my kids through college with the proceeds, and me and Diddy are good pals still.”
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