The No. 1 Song On August 7, 1983 Sounds Even More Head-Turning Today

"Every Breath You Take" was the Police's greatest hit, so much so that there was even a lawsuit over the royalties. But although fans of the band have loved the song for decades, listening to it now inevitably makes you cringe a little. As society grows and evolves, art evolves with it, and that's great in many ways. Unfortunately, it also means that we look back on the things we used to laugh about or sing along to, and we don't always feel good about it. Indeed, "Every Breath You Take" is the perfect example of a song that would most likely not be as successful today as it was on August 7, 1983, when it sat at the top of the charts.

Disguised as a tune about heartbreak, "Every Breath You Take" is actually deeply disturbing. The Police always liked to toe the line, singing controversial songs, often from the perspective of unreliable narrators, but even from that point of view, this story is hard to digest. Here's why this '80s No. 1 rock song aged so terribly.

"Every Breath You Take" came out in 1983 as a single for the Police's most popular album, "Synchronicity." It is, to this day, the biggest hit the English group has had in the U.S., where it topped the charts for eight weeks and quickly became an era-defining rock song of the '80s. But while the tune will forever be seared on people's brains, the lyrics only get more disturbing as time goes by. 

The song is ominous from the very beginning, with the narrator telling someone, seemingly a former lover, that they're keeping tabs on them: "Every breath you take / And every move you make / Every bond you break, every step you take / I'll be watching you." The story only gets worse when it reaches the chorus, when the narrator laments, "Oh, can't you see? / You belong to me / How my poor heart aches / With every step you take." Towards the end, "I'll be watching you" repeats as the song fades.

Sting spoke to The Independent about writing this song, and the inspiration is as dark as the lyrics. Apparently, he woke up in the middle of the night with the line "I'll be watching you" in his head. "It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realise [sic] at the time how sinister it is," he explained. "I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control. These were the Reagan, Star Wars years."