Rock & roll -- and pop music in general -- has a massive output of love songs overflowing with single-minded sentiment, whether it's an oath of eternal devotion or the unrequited affection of lovelorn teenagers. If you're a cynic, you start to notice certain lines in these emotionally simple songs that stand out from the oft-repeated clichés, declarations of affection that seem just a little too single-minded, to the point of bordering on unhealthy obsession. The genius of the Police's "Every Breath You Take" is that writer Sting, by his own admission, did that entirely on purpose. It's subtle, yes, but once it clicks that the song is really about a possessive stalker, the lyrics all fall into place: "Every [noun] you [verb], I'll be watching you," "Oh can't you see/You belong to me." As you can see, the lyrical structure of "Every Breath You Take" is pretty simple, in keeping with the songs it's subverting, and it's not too complicated musically either. Guitarist Andy Summers picks a nearly identical arpeggio pattern on each chord he plays, and Sting's bass line keeps a steady eighth-note pulse without much rhythmic variation. The construction is water-tight, with no wasted time (reportedly, a synth-driven instrumental section was cut for not fitting the song's overall tone). "Every Breath You Take" topped the charts for eight weeks and became the biggest hit single of 1983, as well as the Police's signature song among many well-known hits. It's a perfect pop single that tweaks the conventions of the genre, and once you've discovered the subtext, you may very well start hearing echoes of "Every Breath You Take" in quite a few other songs that are supposed to be sincerely romantic. -- Steve Huey (allmusic.com)