Song Information
Like much of the album, the song has heavy jazz influences, and was a major hit, peaking at number one on the US Album Rock Tracks chart for three weeks. On the US pop chart it peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 17 on the US R&B chart, and number 26 on the UK Singles Chart.
Live performances of the song are featured on the DVD edition of Bring On the Night and on the CD and DVD editions of ...All This Time.
A portion of the song was later used for Sting's 1987 hit "We'll Be Together" from ...Nothing Like the Sun.
The song was also performed at The Brits in February 1995 with M People. He duetted on the song with the band's lead singer, Heather Small and this track was given the dance treatment by the band who were also backed by a 100-strong Gospel Choir at the Earls Court Arena during the annual music awards show.
Sting said that he wrote the song as an "antidote" to the Police's 1983 song "Every Breath You Take." The song was also lampooned by the Dead Milkmen in the song "If You Love Somebody, Set Them on Fire," from their 1990 album Metaphysical Graffiti.
Read more about this topic: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
Famous quotes containing the words song and/or information:
“The quarrel of the sparrows in the eaves,
The full round moon and the star-laden sky,
And the loud song of the ever-singing leaves,
Had hid away earth’s old and weary cry.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“We hear a great deal of lamentation these days about writers having all taken themselves to the colleges and universities where they live decorously instead of going out and getting firsthand information about life. The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)