“King of Pain” by The Police

"King of Pain" comes from Synchronicity, the Police's fifth and final album, in 1983, and Sting wrote it as he was separating from his wife. It's a catalog of misery, image after image of suffering held up against a man's soul, and he sings it with a weary, wounded cool.

The band plays it with real restraint. Stewart Copeland's drums tiptoe and then crash, Andy Summers' electric guitar rings out in spiky, spacious chords, and Sting's bass keeps everything moving underneath. Hugh Padgham produced it with the band and engineered, and the mix leaves room for every sigh.

Many countries got it as the album's second single, though A&M made it the fourth in Britain. Critics praised it, especially Sting's words, and it reached No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in October 1983 after holding No. 1 on Billboard's Top Tracks chart for five weeks that August. In the UK it made No. 17 in January 1984, the last time the Police cracked the Top 20 there.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.