The Police: Could There Be a Lawsuit Around ‘Every Breath You Take’?
“Every Breath You Take,” the iconic hit from The Police, might be at the center of an upcoming lawsuit.
Former Police guitarist Andy Summers alluded to such in a new interview appearance on The Jeremy White Show. Summers famously wrote the iconic riff that acts as the hook to the song. However, Sting is the only songwriter listed on the track.
Summers referred to his lack of a songwriting credit as “a very contentious [topic] that is very much alive at the moment.” He was then asked if there was going to be some sort of lawsuit to get listed as a songwriter on the track. Summers replied, “Watch the press. Let’s see what happens in the next year.”
In November 2021, Summers told Ultimate Classic Rock that neither he nor Stewart Copeland — who also wrote his drum parts but isn’t listed as a songwriter — have received royalties for “Every Breath You Take.” While the song was popular upon its release in 1983, it had a massive resurgence in 1997 when it was sampled on Puff Daddy’s “I’ll Be Missing You.”
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Interestingly, Puff Daddy never asked permission to sample “Every Breath You Take,” and the whole dispute ended up in court. As a result, Sting now receives 100 percent of the royalties from the song. This is due to him being the only songwriter listed on the track. This is also despite the fact that Summers and Copeland each came up with their guitar and drum tracks, respectively. Of course, only Summers’ guitar track and nothing from Sting or Copeland are actually heard on “I’ll Be Missing You.”
So, what kind of royalties does Sting get from “I’ll Be Missing You”? According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, Sting reportedly earns about $2,000 a day in royalties from that song alone. This figure is actually disputed by Puff Daddy, who is now known as Diddy. In April, he shared via X (formerly Twitter) that Sting actually receives $5,000 a day from the royalties from “I’ll Be Missing You.”
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