The Story Behind: "Roxanne"

Roxanne is a song by the English rock band The Police. 

The song was released in 1978 as a single from their first album Outlandos d'Amour (which we talked about in the Top 5 1970's Debut Albums - https://steemit.com/music/@blazek/top-5-1970-s-debut-albums). The song is considered to be one of the greatest songs of all time, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.  

Background

Bassist and lead singer Sting wrote the song, when The Police were on a trip in 1977 to Paris, where he saw prostitutes near their hotel. The inspiration for the songs title came from a character that is in the play Cyrano de Bergerac, a play that was displayed on the poster in their hotel. The lyrics talk about a man (in a first person perspective), whom falls in love with a prostitute.

Recording Process

The band had recorded their album in Surrey Sound Studios in which they recorded a few tracks that were more or less going to be used as B-Sides. The band later showed the album to Miles Copeland (brother of drummer Steward Copeland), which he quite liked. When they started listening to Roxanne, the band thought he won’t like the song, but it was quite the opposite - Copeland liked the song more than any other.  

Though Copeland praised the song, it did not chart in its initial release. The song was issued into North America as a single where it entered on the Billboard Hot 100. When the song became an international hit, the song was rereleased in UK in 1979, and reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.

Fun fact 

The atonal piano chord and the laughter in the beginning of the track, is actually Sting, whom accidentally sat on a piano key and started laughing when they were recording the parts for the song.