Featured Image Credit: The Police/YouTube
Topics: Music
Mia Williams
People have just realised how creepy the lyrics to 'Every Breath You Take' are after many thought it was a 'love song'.
We've all sang catchy tunes without really knowing what the lyrics are, or even understanding what they mean.
It seems as though artists really get in their feels while song writing - some perhaps a little too much.
And 'Every Breath You Take' is probably a good example of one of those tracks.
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The song - released in 1983 by The Police - bagged the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for eight weeks.
The frontman of the rock band, Sting, was the mind behind the lyrics, and wrote it shortly after having an affair with his wife Frances Tomelty's best friend, Trudie Styler, who they lived next door to.
In a bid to escape from the public eye, the musician retreated to the Caribbean, where he wrote the infamous tune.
Talking to the Independent in 2006, Sting - real name Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner - said: "I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and had written it in half an hour.
"The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting.
"It sounds like a comforting love song.
"I didn't realize at the time how sinister it is.
"I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control."
So let's just have a little re-visit of the chorus lyrics:
"Every breath you take / Every move you make.
"Every bond you break / Every step you take / I'll be watching you."
And the rather stalker-ish lyrics continue throughout the song.
People on Reddit were baffled when they realised what the popular song was really about.
One said: "My whole generation believed it was a love song until we got to adulthood and realised it's about a stalker.
"It slid right past us... I do love to listen to it when I am feeling a bit off though."
While another added: "That was my parents' song. They're divorced now. Obviously."
Sting recalled: "One couple told me 'Oh we love that song; it was the main song played at our wedding!'
"I thought, 'Well, good luck'.
"I think the song is very, very sinister and ugly and people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle little love song, when it's quite the opposite."
At least he's self aware!