Hit Parade | If You Love Sting, Set Him Free Edition Part 1

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Walk into any store or flip on a radio, and you’ll probably hear the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” sooner or later. Thanks to that ubiquity, the swooning, menacing megahit’s songwriter—Sting—is a very wealthy man. Now, his former bandmates, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, are suing Sting over who deserves to profit from “Breath” and other Police songs.. No matter how that dispute turns out, it’s a reminder of Sting’s uncanny songwriting skill and his charmed life of hitmaking. For more than four decades, Sting seems to resurface every few years with a new earworm, from “Roxanne” to “Russians,” blending New Wave rock with another genre—reggae, jazz, classical, country, even rap and Raï—and in the process, getting sampled by new generations of Millennial and Zoomer hitmakers. Join Chris Molanphy as he recounts the long, varied, sophisticated, but catchy career of the King of Pain. Whatever he tries, every little thing Sting does is magic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If I get my kid a phone, I'll be able to keep in touch with them all the time.
0:02.8	We'll be on it all the time.
0:04.1	He could walk to school by himself. She could see something, she shouldn't. He could chat with grandma. Friends, trolls. They can access anything on the internet. They can access anything on the internet. So, should I give my kid a phone? Growing up with phones isn't always easy. Introducing EEE safer Sims. Sims that help moderate usage and shield harmful content on any smartphone.
0:24.2	Choose EECF. Growing up with phones isn't always easy. Introducing EEE safer Sims. Sims that help moderate usage and shield harmful content on any smartphone.
0:24.2	Choose EEE safer Sims.
0:25.7	Only on the UK's best network.
0:27.5	To verify best network see EE.com.
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0:39.0	with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your
0:43.7	products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time, from startups to scale
0:48.8	ups, online, in person and on the go. Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.
0:58.7	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
1:06.2	Hey there, hit parade listeners. What you're about to hear is part one of this episode.
1:13.7	Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops?
1:15.7	Sign up for Slate Plus.
1:21.6	It supports not only this show but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts.
1:26.1	Just go to slate.com slash hit parade plus. You'll get to hear every hit parade episode in full the day it arrives.
1:31.6	Plus, hit parade the bridge, our bonus episodes, with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics,
1:39.5	and pop chart trivia. Once again, to join, that's slate.com slash hitparade plus. Thanks,
1:47.3	and now please enjoy part one of this hit parade episode. Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate Magazine, about the hits from coast to coast.
	...

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