Those who followed new wave music in the 1970s might find it tough to separate Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner—known as Sting—from The Police. As the frontman, songwriter, and bassist for the three-piece band, that included Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums), which won five Grammy Awards, induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and worldwide acclaim for its music, a mix of reggae, punk, jazz, funk, and pop-rock.
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It’s been almost 40 years since the Police broke up, and Sting started his solo career, netting him 17 Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, and many other honors, including induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the British Academy of Songwriters.
Although he’s well known as a performer and recording artist, some may not know that he is equally talented as a songwriter. In fact, Universal Music Group recently bought Sting’s songwriting catalog – estimated at more than 400 songs—for what the New York Times estimates as $300 million.
Fans know the Sting-written songs made famous by the Police—“Every Breath You Take” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”—and as a solo artist with songs like “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free.” The deal with Universal covers more than the catalog. It covers his songwriting royalties.
Not bad for someone who, as a child, decided to pursue a glamourous life after watching the late Queen Mother waving at him from a Rolls Royce.
Of the sale, Sting is quoted in the New York Times as saying, “It is absolutely essential to me that my career’s body of work have a home where it is valued and respected. Not only to connect with long-time fans in new ways but also to introduce my songs to new audiences, musicians, and generations.”
One of those songs is likely “Shape of My Heart,” which was the fifth single from Ten Summoner’s Tale, his fourth solo album. The song, written by Sting and his guitarist Dominic Miller, was released in 1993. It was used in two films: The Three of Hearts, released in 1993, and Léon, from 1994.
Although the song didn’t chart in the U.S., it is considered a pop classic and closely linked to Sting’s solo efforts though it’s one of the few songs he co-wrote with Dominic Miller, his long-time guitarist. The song’s beginnings came one day when Miller visited Sting at his English home. At one point, Miller warmed up his fingers on his guitar. Sting took notice of the Chopin-style chords Miller played.
“I was just playing that in front of the fireplace at Sting’s house in England, and he said, ‘What’s that?’ ‘Oh, it’s nothing; it’s just a little movement,” Miller said in a 2018 interview at Jazzklub Divino in Denmark. “(Sting) said, ‘That’s a song.’ I went, ‘Really? Are you kidding me?’
“Then ten minutes later, we went into the studio—’cause we were at his studio anyway in his lake house – and we put a drum machine up, just the two of us. And then he went out in the garden for a walk, and he came back with those lyrics. And so we recorded it! It was just an acoustic guitar, and it was finished in one day—it was written in one day and recorded.”
Sting said (via Songfacts), “Dominic now thinks that I find lyrics under a rock somewhere….He could, of course, be right.”
When the song was first released, Sting told the story about wanting to write a song about a “card player, a gambler who gambles not to win but to try and figure out something; to figure out some kind of mystical logic in luck, or chance; some kind of scientific, almost religious law. So this guy’s a philosopher, he’s not playing for respect, and he’s not playing for money, he’s just trying to figure out the law – there has to be some logic to it. He’s a poker player, so it’s not easy for him to express his emotions; in fact, he doesn’t express anything, he has a mask, and it’s just one mask, and it never changes.”
He deals the cards as a meditation
And those he plays never suspect
He doesn’t play for the money he wins
He don’t play for respect
He deals the cards to find the answer
The sacred geometry of chance
The hidden law of a probable outcome
The numbers lead a dance
The song has been sampled and covered many times throughout the years. And Miller still wonders at how almost effortlessly the song came together.
“It’s one of those nice moments that happen in your life when things just fall on top of each other naturally, like nature. It’s not always like that,” he’s quoted as saying. “Sting’s genius with lyrics made it into a very, very ambiguous kind of narrative, which really goes well with that kind of arpeggio, with those Chopin-esque chords, you know? That Chopin-esque harmony kind of lends itself to those kinds of lyrics, with Sting’s timbre of his voice and the sound of my guitar and just a bit of groove. It was the perfect storm.”
Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage
