Song · The Police
“Tea In The Sahara” by The Police
From the album Synchronicity (1983)
“Tea In The Sahara” by The Police appears on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1999 and 2023. It was first released in 1983 on the album Synchronicity. Its best result is #448 on The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #7,065 alternative song of all time.
Sting wrote "Tea in the Sahara" for Synchronicity, the 1983 record that turned out to be the Police's last, and he lifted its story from a book he adored: Paul Bowles' novel The Sheltering Sky, whose opening section shares the title. There the character Port hears a tale of three sisters waiting in the desert for a prince to come to tea, and the prince never comes back. Sting sings and plays bass, Andy Summers is on electric guitar and Stewart Copeland on drums, with Hugh Padgham engineering and co-producing alongside the band.
Sting rated the novel among the most beautiful he'd read, a book about Americans who see themselves as travellers rather than tourists, and he counted himself in that company. A live version later did B-side duty, behind "King of Pain" in Britain and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" in America.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 1895 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 1902 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2023 | 448 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
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