Driven to tears (Sting) (LP 4007 - 4008)

Sting  The Dream of the Blue Turtles (CD, A&M Records, 1985) ****  

Sting  Bring on the Night (CD, A&M Records, 1986) ****  

Genre: Jazz, jazz rock, pop

Places I remember: Kings Recording (Abu Dhabi)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (The Dream...)

Gear costume: Bring on the Night/ When the World is Running Down...(Bring on the Night)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: One way to beat the eighties traps in music is to veer away from expectations into a different genre - jazz in Sting's example.

He'd built a lot of momentum through the Police years with a continued string of hits. So, his solo debut was widely anticipated. And he delivered!

There were five successful singles lifted from the album - If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Fortress Around Your Heart, Russians, Moon Over Bourbon Street, and Love Is the Seventh Wave.. 

The double live album followed - Bring on the Night. I played this a lot while living in The Middle East. The touring band never put a foot wrong on this set. No surprise as it features jazz musicians Branford Marsalis on tenor and soprano saxophones, Darryl Jones (bass), Kenny Kirkland (keyboards), and Omar Hakim (drums).

Where do they all belong? Sting has released a lot of albums but this jazz diversion was the only part of his career that I was interested in.

I always play the starring role (Police) #312

The Police Can't Stand Losing You/ So Lonely (A&M, K 7259, 1978)

The Police had a pretty solid run of hit singles starting with Can't Stand Losing You which came from their debut album Outlandos d'Amour (yes the one with Roxanne on it as well).

Gordon Sumner (A.K.A. Sting) can sure write catchy hit songs. That choppy cod reggae style the band adopted as a lief motif was a genius move.

Luckily for The Police they achieved synchronicity with the advent of MTV. Their videos were twice shy pop marketing pieces of perfection. So they became huge. That must play with one's ego, n'est-ce pas!?

Hidden gem: Great value for money on this single as So Lonely is another terrific pop song. Elsewhere in the world Dead End Job was the B side but the folk at A&M NZ clearly had other ideas!