"Walking on the Moon" is a song by British rock band

the Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...

, released as the second single from their second studio album, ''

Reggatta de Blanc ''Reggatta de Blanc'' is the second studio album by British rock band the Police, released on 2 October 1979 by A&M Records. It was the band's first release to top the UK Albums Chart and features their first two UK number-one singles: " Messa ...

'' (1979). The song was written by the band's lead vocalist and bassist Sting. It went on to become the band's second hit in the UK.

Background

Sting has said that he wrote the song when he was drunk one night after a concert in Munich. The following morning, he remembered the song and wrote it down. In his autobiography, Sting implies that the song was partially inspired by an early girlfriend: According to Sting, the song was originally recorded "as a rocker" in early versions, but it was reworked. The riff, which is played on the bass, was described as "weird" and "jazzy" by Sting. Guitarist

Andy Summers Andrew James Summers (born 31 December 1942), is an English guitarist who was a member of the rock band The Police. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a band member in 2003. Summers has recorded solo albums, collaborated w ...

came up with the chord "which hits after the bass notes" throughout the song. "Walking on the Moon" was released as the follow-up single to the British single "

Message in a Bottle A message in a bottle (abbrev. MIB) is a form of communication in which a message is sealed in a container (typically a bottle) and released into a conveyance medium (typically a body of water). Messages in bottles have been used to send distres ...

" in late 1979. The song was the Police's second number-one hit single in the United Kingdom.The Police in the UK Charts
, The Official Charts. It also reached in Ireland and in Australia but did not chart in the United States. A music video for the song was shot at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

in Florida on 23 October 1979. It features the band members miming to the track amidst spacecraft displays, interspersed with

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

footage. Both Sting and Andy Summers strum guitars (not bass) in the video, and

Stewart Copeland Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is a Scottish-American musician and composer. He is best known for his work as the drummer of the English rock band the Police from 1977 to 1986, and again from 2007 to 2008. Before playing with th ...

strikes his drumsticks on a

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...

moon rocket. The B-side to the song, "Visions of the Night", was written by Sting. He said of the song, "This was the first song I wrote after going to London. It was hard to be serious about the whole thing. I was bemused, much to Stewart opelands disgust." According to Copeland, the song was "too cerebral for

he band's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

early audiences," so Sting would call it "Three O'Clock Shit", the title of a rejected Police song that appears as "Three O'Clock Shot" on '' Strontium 90: Police Academy''.

Composition

"Walking on the Moon" has a "sparse" arrangement, centred around a three-note bass riff. It is one of the Police's more

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

-influenced songs.

Music video

The video was shot at the

in Florida on October 23, 1979. It features the band playing their respective instruments near a Saturn V moon rocket (although Sting is seen with an electric guitar, not bass) with several NASA footage spliced. It was directed by Derek Burbidge.

Track listing

;7" A&M / AMS 7494 (UK) # "Walking on the Moon" (Edit) – 3:59 (This edit has never been officially released on CD.) # "Visions of the Night" – 3:05 ;12" A&M / AMSP 7494 (UK) # "Walking on the Moon" – 4:59 # "Visions of the Night" – 3:05

Charts

Personnel

* Sting – voices and fretless bass *

– electric guitar and synthesizer *

– drums

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walking On The Moon The Police songs 1979 singles 1980 singles UK Singles Chart number-one singles Jimmy Nail songs Songs written by Sting (musician) Song recordings produced by Nigel Gray 1979 songs A&M Records singles Reggae rock songs Songs about the Moon