The Police’s ‘Synchronicity’ album cover.

In their meteoric ascent to global superstardom from 1977 to 1984, the Police landed many memorable hits, but only one that reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. “Every Breath You Take,” released with their fifth and final album, Synchronicity, in 1983, was not just the London trio’s only U.S. #1 hit, but also the States’ best-selling single of its release year and the fifth best-selling single of the ‘80s. In 2019, BMI recognized the infectious soft-rock anthem as the most-played song in radio history; music journalist David Hepworth estimated that it accounts for something between a quarter and a third of frontman Sting’s total publishing revenue.

While the allocation of these accolades and interpersonal relationships between the trio have always been fraught, long-simmering tension reached a new head over the weekend when guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland sued Sting for lost royalties. Sting–non-mononymously Gordon Sumner–is named as a defendant alongside his publishing company, Magnetic Publishing Limited, in a High Court writ pursuing “substantial” damages related to “Every Breath You Take,” The Sun reported.

A source close to the action shared that the suit was a last resort after unsuccessful bids for an out-of-court settlement: “Andy and Stewart decided there was no alternative than court so pressed the button. They say they are owed millions in lost royalties.”

Sting is credited as the sole songwriter for “Every Breath You Take” and reportedly collects £550,000 each year in royalties from the single, which reliably rides waves of nostalgia to viral moments and sync placements, including Stranger Things, Billions, The Simpsons and more. The Police’s vocalist and bassist is credited with independently creating the melody and deceptively sinister lyrics, but Summers contributed the track’s instantly identifiable arpeggiated riff. The guitarist has been vocal about the impact of his contributions in interviews since.

“It was a tense moment anyway because we felt like Sting was about to leave the band anyway,” Summers told Ultimate Guitar in 2024. “But we were finishing up and couldn’t sort this track out. And then we were in the control room and Sting says, ‘Well, go on, go in there and make it your own,’ which is like go in and be the other writer of the song… I went in and I almost immediately played that lick, that riff that goes all the way through the song, and that immediately put the song right at the top.”

The Police parted ways at the height of their fame after an aborted attempt at a sixth album in 1984. Sting, Summers and Copeland have occasionally crossed paths onstage and in the studio since, including a massively successful 30th anniversary tour in 2007 and 2008, which made the Police the world’s highest-earning musicians in the latter year. Sting later expressed his regret for the reunion, which he labeled “an exercise in nostalgia” in an interview with Reader’s Digest.

“That’s not a slight on the people I was with or the way things panned out; it’s just how I saw it by the end; and let’s be honest, that’s not how I wanted to remember it,” Sting said. “If I thought that would be the emotion I’d be leaving with I wouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

Listen to “Every Breath You Take” and Sting’s early demo for the song below.