Don't Stand So Close to Me
Encyclopedia
"Don't Stand So Close to Me" (also called "Don't Stand So Close" or "Don't Stand") is a 1980 song and hit single by the British
rock
band
The Police
. It concerns a schoolgirl's crush on her young teacher and the teacher's nervousness about the situation. The Police won the 1982 "Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
" for this song. A re-recorded version of the song was released in 1986 as "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86".
...All This Time, Sting denied that the song is autobiographical. The line "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov" alludes to Vladimir Nabokov
's famous novel Lolita
which covers somewhat similar issues.
"Don't Stand So Close to Me" appeared on The Police's album
Zenyattà Mondatta
(A&M), and became a hit 'No.1' UK single along with a corresponding music video
. In the US
, it reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100
chart, peaking at #10. In the UK, the track was confirmed by the end of 1980 to have been the biggest selling single of that year.
The B side, "Friends", was written by Andy Summers and is inspired by Stranger in a Strange Land
, a science fiction
novel by Robert A. Heinlein
.
Sting was asked to perform on Mark Knopfler
's "Money for Nothing
" as he was in Montserrat at the time, and reused the melody from the chorus of "Don't Stand So Close to Me" in the counterpoint lyric 'I want my MTV'. It was only after this story was related to reporters during promotions for the Brothers in Arms
album that lawyers for Sting became involved, and later copies of the album co-credit the song to Sting. The initial pressings list only Mark Knopfler. It is one of only two shared songwriting credits on any Dire Straits
album.
7" - A&M / AMS 2301 (US)
, and was released as a single, reaching number 24 in the British charts. It also reached number 11 in Ireland, number 14 in New Zealand, number 19 in Netherlands MegaCharts Singles Chart (number 20 on Dutch Top 40), number 27 in Canada and number 46 on Billboard Hot 100 (number 10 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks). This single was reportedly one of the first commercial CD single
s ever produced.
Likely because of the decrease in tempo, a slight lyric change is found in the line "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov" (the word 'famous' was added). A new music video was produced for the reworked song by Godley and Creme, notable for its early use of animated computer graphics
.
Because drummer Stewart Copeland
broke his collarbone and was unable to play the drums, Copeland opted to use his Fairlight CMI
to program the drum track for the single. While singer/bassist Sting pushed to utilize the drums on his Synclavier
instead, the group's engineer found the Synclavier's programming interface difficult—and took him two days to complete the task. Copeland ultimately finished the drum programming very quickly and claimed that the Fairlight's then-legendary "Page R" (the device's sequencing page) saved his life and put him on the map as a composer. In a Qantas
inflight radio program named "Reeling In The Years", Copeland was quoted as saying that the argument over Synclavier versus Fairlight drums was "the straw that broke the camel's back", and led to the group's unraveling.
As The Police had already disbanded by the time the 1986 single was released, this was the last recording before the band's reunion and the most recent studio recording the band has released to the present day.
12" - A&M / AMY 354 (UK)
in 2009. It was performed by the character Will Schuester
(played by Matthew Morrison
) as a musical mashup
with "Young Girl" in the episode "Ballad
". It was included on the second soundtrack album
from the series.
In the episode, high school student Rachel Berry
(Lea Michele
) develops a schoolgirl crush on her teacher Mr. Schuester, after singing the song "Endless Love
" with him. In response, Schuester creates and performs the mashup for Rachel as a way to gently let her know that her crush is inappropriate for her age.
The single version charted at number 67 in Canada
, number 64 in the United States
and number 50 in Ireland
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
. It concerns a schoolgirl's crush on her young teacher and the teacher's nervousness about the situation. The Police won the 1982 "Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011.The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories...
" for this song. A re-recorded version of the song was released in 1986 as "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86".
Background
The song deals with the mixed feelings of lust, fear and guilt that a female student has for a school teacher and vice versa, and inappropriateness leading to confrontation. The music and lyrics of the song were written by the lead singer of The Police, Sting, who had previously worked as an English teacher. In a 2001 interview for the concert DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
...All This Time, Sting denied that the song is autobiographical. The line "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov" alludes to Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
's famous novel Lolita
Lolita
Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
which covers somewhat similar issues.
"Don't Stand So Close to Me" appeared on The Police's album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Zenyattà Mondatta
Zenyatta Mondatta
Zenyattà Mondatta went to #5 in the U.S. and #1 in the UK and Australia, spurred by the success of the Sting-penned singles "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"...
(A&M), and became a hit 'No.1' UK single along with a corresponding music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
. In the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart, peaking at #10. In the UK, the track was confirmed by the end of 1980 to have been the biggest selling single of that year.
The B side, "Friends", was written by Andy Summers and is inspired by Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with—and...
, a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
.
Sting was asked to perform on Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
's "Money for Nothing
Money for Nothing (song)
"Money for Nothing" is a single by British rock band Dire Straits, taken from their 1985 album Brothers in Arms. It was one of Dire Straits' most successful singles, peaking at number one for three weeks in the United States, and it also reached number one for three weeks on the U.S. Mainstream...
" as he was in Montserrat at the time, and reused the melody from the chorus of "Don't Stand So Close to Me" in the counterpoint lyric 'I want my MTV'. It was only after this story was related to reporters during promotions for the Brothers in Arms
Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits album)
- Original LP track listing :- 2005 Re-Issue 2 LP track listing :The 2005 Limited Edition Deluxe 180 gram High Performance Vinyl reissue contained the full-length versions of all songs by spreading out the songs over two half speed mastered LPs....
album that lawyers for Sting became involved, and later copies of the album co-credit the song to Sting. The initial pressings list only Mark Knopfler. It is one of only two shared songwriting credits on any Dire Straits
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...
album.
Personnel
- Sting - Lead vocals, backing vocals, bass guitar
- Andy SummersAndy SummersAndy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...
- Guitars, guitar synthesizer, spoken word on "Friends" - Stewart CopelandStewart CopelandStewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...
- Drums
Track listing
7" - A&M / AMS 7564 (UK)- "Don't Stand So Close to Me" - 4:03
- "Friends" - 3:37
7" - A&M / AMS 2301 (US)
- "Don't Stand So Close to Me" - 4:03
- "A Sermon" - 2:34
1986 single release
The song was re-recorded in 1986 in a new, brooding arrangement with a different chorus and a more opulent production. The new version appeared as "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" on the album Every Breath You Take: The SinglesEvery Breath You Take: The Singles
Every Breath You Take: The Singles is the debut compilation album by The Police, released in 1986. In 1990, the album was repackaged in New Zealand, Australia and Spain as Their Greatest Hits with a different cover.-Track listing:...
, and was released as a single, reaching number 24 in the British charts. It also reached number 11 in Ireland, number 14 in New Zealand, number 19 in Netherlands MegaCharts Singles Chart (number 20 on Dutch Top 40), number 27 in Canada and number 46 on Billboard Hot 100 (number 10 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks). This single was reportedly one of the first commercial CD single
CD single
A CD single is a music single in the form of a standard size Compact Disc, not to be confused with the 3-inch CD single, which uses a smaller form factor. The format was introduced in the mid-1980s, but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s...
s ever produced.
Likely because of the decrease in tempo, a slight lyric change is found in the line "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov" (the word 'famous' was added). A new music video was produced for the reworked song by Godley and Creme, notable for its early use of animated computer graphics
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
.
Because drummer Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland
Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...
broke his collarbone and was unable to play the drums, Copeland opted to use his Fairlight CMI
Fairlight CMI
The Fairlight CMI is a digital sampling synthesizer. It was designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, and based on a dual-6800 microprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia...
to program the drum track for the single. While singer/bassist Sting pushed to utilize the drums on his Synclavier
Synclavier
The Synclavier System was an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation, manufactured by New England Digital Corporation, Norwich, VT. The original design and development of the Synclavier prototype occurred at Dartmouth College with the collaboration of...
instead, the group's engineer found the Synclavier's programming interface difficult—and took him two days to complete the task. Copeland ultimately finished the drum programming very quickly and claimed that the Fairlight's then-legendary "Page R" (the device's sequencing page) saved his life and put him on the map as a composer. In a Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
inflight radio program named "Reeling In The Years", Copeland was quoted as saying that the argument over Synclavier versus Fairlight drums was "the straw that broke the camel's back", and led to the group's unraveling.
As The Police had already disbanded by the time the 1986 single was released, this was the last recording before the band's reunion and the most recent studio recording the band has released to the present day.
Track listing
7" - A&M / AM 354 (UK)- "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" - 4:47
- "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (Live) - 3:40
12" - A&M / AMY 354 (UK)
- "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" (Dance Mix) - 6:32
- "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" - 4:47
- "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (Original Version) - 4:03
- "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (Live) - 3:40
Glee cover
The song was covered in an episode of the American television series GleeGlee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
in 2009. It was performed by the character Will Schuester
Will Schuester
William "Will" Schuester, often referred to as Mr. Schue, is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Matthew Morrison and has appeared in Glee since its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Will was developed by Glee...
(played by Matthew Morrison
Matthew Morrison
Matthew James "Matt" Morrison is an American actor, director, musician, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for starring in multiple Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including his portrayal of Link Larkin in Hairspray on Broadway, and most notably for his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated...
) as a musical mashup
Mashup (music)
A mashup or bootleg is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another...
with "Young Girl" in the episode "Ballad
Ballad (Glee)
"Ballad" is the tenth episode of the American television series Glee. The episode premiered on the Fox network on November 18, 2009, and was written and directed by series creator Brad Falchuk. "Ballad" sees the glee club split into pairs to sing ballads to one another. Rachel is paired with club...
". It was included on the second soundtrack album
Glee: The Music, Volume 2
Glee: The Music, Volume 2 is the second soundtrack album by the cast of the American musical television series Glee, featuring songs from episodes nine to thirteen of the show's first season. It was first released on December 4, 2009 in Australia by Columbia Records...
from the series.
In the episode, high school student Rachel Berry
Rachel Berry (Glee)
Rachel Berry is a fictional character and de facto female lead from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Lea Michele, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Rachel was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad...
(Lea Michele
Lea Michele
Lea Michele Sarfati , known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress and singer. Michele began working professionally as a child actress on Broadway in productions such as Ragtime and Les Misérables. She originated the role of Wendla in the musical Spring Awakening and currently plays...
) develops a schoolgirl crush on her teacher Mr. Schuester, after singing the song "Endless Love
Endless Love (song)
"Endless Love" is a song written by Lionel Richie and originally recorded as a duet between Richie and fellow soul singer Diana Ross. In this ballad, the singers declare their "endless love" for one another. It was covered by soul singer Luther Vandross with R&B singer Mariah Carey and also by...
" with him. In response, Schuester creates and performs the mashup for Rachel as a way to gently let her know that her crush is inappropriate for her age.
The single version charted at number 67 in Canada
Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007...
, number 64 in the United States
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and number 50 in Ireland
Irish Singles Chart
The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured...
.