Synchronicity is the fifth and final studio album by the Police, released in the United Kingdom on June 17,1983. The band’s most successful release, the album includes the hit singles “Every Breath You Take”, “King of Pain”, “Wrapped Around Your Finger”, and “Synchronicity II”. The album’s title and much of the material for the songs were inspired by Arthur Koestler’s The Roots of Coincidence. At the 1984 Grammy Awards the album was nominated for a total of five awards including Album of the Year and won three. At the time of its release and following its tour the Police were hailed as the “Biggest Band in the World”.
The album reached number one on both the UK Albums Chart and the U.S. Billboard 200, and sold over eight million copies in the U.S. Synchronicity was widely acclaimed by critics. Praise centred on its cohesive merging of disparate genres and sonic experimentation. Rolling Stone described “each cut on Synchronicity [as] not simply a song but a miniature, discrete soundtrack”. It has since been included on their lists of the “100 Best Albums of the Eighties” and the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
In 2009, Synchronicity was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In the 1983 Rolling Stone readers poll, Synchronicity was voted “Album of the Year”.
The second most weeks at number one in 1983
1. “Synchronicity I” 3:23
2. “Walking in Your Footsteps” 3:36
3. “O My God” 4:02
4. “Mother” 3:05
5. “Miss Gradenko” 2:00
6. “Synchronicity II” 5:00
7. “Every Breath You Take” 4:13
8. “King of Pain” 4:59
9. “Wrapped Around Your Finger” 5:13
10. “Tea in the Sahara” 4:11
11. “Murder by Numbers” 4:36
Sting – lead and backing vocals, bass guitar, upright bass, keyboards, drum machine and sequencer on “Synchronicity I”, saxophone on “O My God”, oboe on “Mother” and “Tea in the Sahara”
Andy Summers – electric guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, lead vocals on “Mother”
Stewart Copeland – drums, marimba, percussion, backing vocals
Tessa Niles – backing vocals
Hugh Padgham – production, engineering
Dave Collins, Bob Ludwig – mastering
Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff – art direction, design
Norman Moore – art direction, design
Duane Michals – photography
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