For as monumental as it was, one has to wonder why The Police's "Every Breath You Take", while popular enough, is not given the same social reverence for shaping the culture of the '80s.
Just as Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" slayed the hair metal dragon that had been spewing forth pointless power balladry, "Every Breath You Take" had laid waste to the likes of Christopher Cross, Air Supply and Lionel Richie.
Aside from the obvious similarity (both bands were trios led by mercurial blond singers who could write a song), both career-defining songs hit the airwaves with a seismic impact that made everything else around them pale by comparison.
Considering that the popularity of "Flashdance" may not have been as all-encompassing as "Saturday Night Fever", it sure as hell felt like it at the time. Between the movie's endless domination at the box office and Irene Cara's massive hit theme song, you either had "Flashdance" fever or a "Flashdance" hangover.
If that wasn't bad enough, the seemingly endless "schmaltz duel" between Lionel Ritchie and Christopher Cross continued unabated. As a result, just hearing "Every Breath You Take" on Top 40 radio for the first time gave those of us with ears hope that there might still be intelligent life in the music industry,
Thing was, for die-hard fans of the band, it had been obvious by Ghost In The Machine that Sting was on the verge of bolting. He'd gone from feeling pinned down by the reggae tag to feeling stifled by the band to crafting overly-polished 16-track demos with an outside keyboardist and then expecting those recordings to be used for the album.
What hit record store shelves was a dark, overly textural mood piece that hinted at an ego run amok. Synchronicity arrived just shy of two years later, revealing the tenuous truce in the aftermath of a violent psychic coup that had been waged behind closed doors.
Thankfully, none of that acrimony can be heard in the grooves of "Every Breath You Take".
Much like Neil Finn's "I Got You", Sting's matter-of-fact delivery so perfectly captured the calm mania obsession and, in doing so, becoming a sort of de facto calling card for both the Police and Sting - so much so that, by 1985, he would reference the song's lyrics in his solo hit "Love is The Seventh Wave".
How influential was "Every Breath You Take" on, say, U2?
One could argue that without "Every Breath You Take" there would have been no "With Or Without You" to help U2 make the graceful transition from the cheap seats to the proverbial luxury box of mainstream pop acts.
For the Police, the song's success seemed to propel Sting into a stratosphere all his own where even Andy and Stewart weren't allowed to go as the media's sole focus turned to the former Gordon Sumner.
Hence, "Every Breath You Take" will always be the audio equivalent of driving your friends to the mall and then ditching them to hang out with - of all people - the geeks in jazz band.
Excuse me while I fondly recall recognizing Dream of The Blue Turtles for the pompous lite-jazz pants-load that it was upon release and asking "You broke up the Police for this?!"