The Police

The Police first came together London, England in 1977 as veterans of a previous musical wave trying to reinvent themselves for the punk generation. Singer/bassist Sting (a.k.a. Gordon Sumner) had been in jazz fusion band Last Exit. Guitarist Andy Summers had played with everyone from '60s blues-rockers Zoot Money's Big Roll Band and Eric Burdon's New Animals. Drummer Stewart Copeland, the sole American, was in U.K. prog outfit Curved Air.

The band's original, short-lived guitarist was Henry Padovani, the only member whose instrumental abilities didn't extend beyond punk. He played on The Police's 1977 debut single, "Fall Out," but a few months later Summers came into the picture and Padovani was soon history. The band's manager, Copeland's brother Miles, fronted the money for the first Police album, but he soon found a home for it at A&M Records, who released Outlandos d'Amour in 1978.

With Sting handling most of the songwriting, The Police blended punk energy, reggae grooves, and classic pop sensibilities. The combination made the band a success in England, but they only made moderate inroads in America at first, despite the irresistibility of their single "Roxanne." 1979's Reggatta de Blanc made the trio full-blown British rock stars, giving them their first No. 1 album and a pair of chart-topping singles ("Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon").

But The Police's third LP, 1980's Zenyatta Mondatta, earned the band worldwide superstardom. The Police expanded their sound on the album, emphasizing their pop leanings and broadening their textural palette with the use of guitar synthesizer and an extensive array of effects. An increasingly politicized worldview was aired on tunes like "Driven to Tears" and "Bombs Away," but it was the schoolgirl romance of "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and the pure pop bliss of "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" that gave the band their first Top 10 singles in America (Sting's photogenic mug didn't hurt either).

1981's Ghost in the Machine took a moodier turn while increasing the sociopolitical content. But the U.S. No. 3 single "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" was The Police's poppiest effort yet. The Police were a notoriously contentious lot, with Copeland and Sting's egos sparring from the beginning, but by this point things really started coming to a head. Even as the band's profile soared ever higher, Summers and Copeland increasingly felt like they were becoming Sting's backup musicians.

But before they imploded, The Police managed to go out on a high note. Their swan song, 1983's Synchronicity, was both their most sophisticated set of songs and their biggest blockbuster ever, thanks in large part to the ubiquitous smash "Every Breath You Take." After an extended hiatus, the trio finally hung it up in 1986. Unsurprisingly, Sting went on to an extremely successful solo career. Copeland and Summers immersed themselves in a multitude of musically challenging projects.

In 2007, The Police reunited for one last, long tour, raking in remarkable amounts of money and proving that their appeal remained undimmed.