If You Love Somebody Set Them Free - 2011 Remix

Written by Sting, this was the first single released from his debut solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles. His band The Police took some time off in 1984 following their Synchronicity tour, which is when he made the album. The Police regrouped in 1986, but lasted just three concerts and an aborted album. They didn't tour again until 2007 and never made another album. Sting had loads of creative energy that he was able to direct into his solo work where his musicians were session players and not band-members, a relationship that better suited him at this time. The other Police-men, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, did very well in their endeavors, with Copeland becoming a top soundtrack composer and Summers making acclaimed music for a more niche audience.

Sting wrote this in response to "Every Breath You Take," his monumental hit with The Police. He explained in Lyrics By Sting: "This song was as much a hymn to my newfound freedom as it was an antidote to the brooding issues of control and surveillance that haunted 'Every Breath You Take.' Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to a partner is 'I don't own you - you're free.' If you were to try to possess them in the obvious way, you could never appreciate them in the way that really counts. There are too many prisons in the world already."

Sting assembled a group of jazz musicians, including bass player Darryl Jones (who went on to join The Rolling Stones in 1993), sax player Branford Marsalis, keyboardist Kenny Kirkland and drummer Omar Hakim, and headed to Barbados to record this album at Eddy Grant's studio.