Think you know everything about the Police? Think again.
Think you know everything about The Police? Think again. The new documentary, Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police, available on Vimeo reveals secrets few people have heard about the band and its breakout star Sting and we rounded up seven of the most juicy ones here.
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1. "Roxanne" started out in a completely different genre.
When guitarist Andy Summers first heard the song, that became about a man who falls in love with a prostitute, he thought it was a good lullaby for his unborn child. Sting first played it for him when he was falling asleep with his wife Kate Summers in 1977.
2. The Police members still have a dysfunctional love/hate relationship offstage.
Summers described Sting as "not a team player" in an interview with the New York Post earlier this year.
3. They hated answering questions about Sting becoming the group's focus.
"Look, [Sting] was a very good-looking guy with a great voice, and he'd strip off onstage," Summers told the N.Y. Post. "We were dripping with No. 1 records ... It's a classic story -- the lead singer starts to get more attention because he's the guy actually singing, and of course there's that ego that goes with it, and control issues."
4. The band went blond because of Wrigley's gum.
Back in 1977 before the band made it big, they agreed to appear in a Wrigley's commercial directed by Ridley Scott. Wrigley's demanded that the band dye their hair blond to play a non-descript punk band. The look eventually became The Police's trademark even though the commercial never aired.
5. Andy Summers played with Neil Sedaka and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Summers had a whole other life before The Police, as the band's eldest member. Before linking up with Sting and Stewart Copeland, Summers worked with Eric Burdon and The Animals and Neil Sedaka with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
6. Their third album title, Zenyatta Mondatta, is meaningless.
Zenyattà Mondatta are two made-up words. The band's first and second albums were similarly titled, as Outlandos d'Amour was meant to evoke the phrase "outlaws of love" and Reggatta de Blance was just a silly way of saying "white reggae."
7. Stewart Copeland grew up in Beirut.
Copeland's dad, a CIA officer, was working in Lebanon for the better part of the '50s and '60s.
Find out even more little-known facts about the band in Can't Stand Losing You.