“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” by The Police, released in September 1980 as the lead single from their third studio album Zenyatta Mondatta.
The band’s third No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, it was also the best selling single of 1980 in the UK selling 808,000 copies in 1980 alone.
Don’t Stand So Close To Me- The Police.
The music and lyrics of the song were written by the lead vocalist of the Police, Sting. The song deals with the mixed feelings of lust, fear and guilt that a school teacher has for a student and the fallout when the inappropriate relationship is discovered by other adults. The line “Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov” alludes to Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita (1955), which covers somewhat similar issues. The line was criticized for rhyming “shake and cough” with Nabokov. Sting replied, “I’ve used that terrible, terrible rhyme technique a few times.”
Before joining the Police, Sting had previously worked as an English teacher. He referred to the song’s story progression as “the teacher, the open page, the virgin, the rape in the car, getting the sack.”
In 1993, however, he said of the song’s inspiration, “You have to remember we were blond bombshells at the time and most of our fans were young girls so I started roleplaying a bit. Let’s exploit that.” He also stated that the song does not have a basis in fact, stating that “To be frank, it was right in our market. A lot of teenage girls were buying our records. So the idea was, let’s write a Lolita story.” In a 2001 interview for the concert DVD …All This Time, Sting denied that the song is autobiographical.
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” features Sting on lead vocals. Like many Police songs, the verses are more subdued, while the chorus is bolder and louder. The song also bears a reggae style, yet another common trait in Police songs.
The track uses a guitar synthesizer in the middle of the song, which was used by guitarist Andy Summers. Summers said, “After Sting had put the vocals on ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ we looked for something to lift the middle of the song. I came up with a guitar synthesiser. It was the first time we’d used it. I felt it worked really well.” The verses and choruses do not feature this effect.
