The Police In The Studio For 'Zenyatta Mondatta' Anniversary

10-13-2025

The 45th anniversary of The Police's "Zenyatta Mondatta" album is being celebrated by the syndicated radio show In The Studio With Redbeard: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands.

Redbeard shared this synopsis for the episode: Amazing to realize that it has been forty-five years since The Police copped their first hit album in America with their third effort, Zenyatta Mondatta.

On their first U.S.tour in early 1979, the three members of The Police, Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, & Sting arrived for their first interview with me at Memphis radio ROCK 103 studio in a station wagon. Barely 15 months later they returned to take me to lunch, except this time they were in a chauffeur-driven limousine. I learned never to doubt the talent or determination of Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland.

It seems that stardom for The Police had occurred in the UK with the release of their second album Reggatta de Blanc containing the excellent "Message in a Bottle", but mainstream popularity in the U.S. still eluded them. Thinking aloud back then during my classic rock interview, main songwriter Sting remarked rhetorically, "I wonder what it would take to write a hit song in America? The idea appeals to me." So when the third Police album Zenyatta Mondatta appeared barely ten months later in October 1980, containing the hits "Don't Stand So Close to Me", "When the World Is Running Down", "Driven to Tears", & "De Do Do Do", I had to smile and admit to myself that Sting certainly did not take long to figure that out.

Stream the episode here