Roxanne (song)
Roxanne is a song by the rock band The Police, released in 1978 as a single and on the album Outlandos d' Amour. The song is about a prostitute.
Musician
- Sting - fretless bass, vocals, background vocals
- Andy Summers - guitar, backing vocals
- Stewart Copeland - drums, backing vocals
History
The song was written by Sting, the singer of the band. He was there inspired by the prostitutes he saw near his hotel, while the band in October 1977 stayed in Paris to perform there at the Nashville Club. The title of the piece is the name of a character from the play Cyrano de Bergerac, an old poster of which was hanging in the hotel foyer.
Sting had the song originally presented as Bossa Nova; reportedly has proposed the, rhythm finally used, rather tango -oriented Police drummer Stewart Copeland.
During recording, Sting began at the beginning of the piece by mistake on a keyboard. The resulting clusters and the subsequent laughter were left on the recording.
The band was the song towards first set reserved, but Miles Copeland III was very enthusiastic when he heard him, and gave the band their first record deal with A & M Records. The single made it initially not in the charts, but in 1979 re-released and reached number 12 in the UK and number 32 in the U.S.. The song became a classic of the policy and also part of the standard program of the singer Sting after he resumed his solo career. Roxanne is not yet appeared on any greatest hits compilation of the policy.
In Rolling Stone, he takes the place of 388 on the list of 500 greatest songs of all time.
With the reunification of the Police after 30 years during the Grammy Awards in 2007, this song was played first.
Music Video
It was released three different music videos of Roxanne.
The first shows the band on stage during a kind of sound check. These pieces of live performances of the band are shown in slow motion.
The second version was filmed on a soundstage and shows the band in front of a red backdrop.
The third version corresponds to the second, but the video footage was transferred to film to add a grainy image structure.
Cover versions
A very early published cover comes from Inga Rumpf, appeared on their 1979 album, " I know who I am". Other cover versions of this piece were published among others by George Michael in 1999 on his album Songs from the Last Century. Furthermore, 2001 by Ewan McGregor, Jose Feliciano, Jacek Koman and Richard Roxburgh in the film Moulin Rouge, where it was modified into a tango entitled " El Tango de Roxanne ". More versions are available from Fall Out Boy, Dilana, Fonzerelli and Incubus (along with members of the Police, with the exception of Sting. )
In many parts of music pieces Roxanne were used as a sample.