Roxanne Introduction
In a Nutshell
We have to admit that this song's just about the ultimate cliché: Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl happens to be a prostitute. Boy decides he's going to rescue girl, make her his one and only, and make sure she never has to sell herself again.Wait, haven't we seen this movie before? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.
Like we said, it's just about the ultimate cliché. But that doesn't mean it's not also a classic, killer song. We may have seen this movie before, but where else have we felt the kind of true anguish that Sting conveys in his wailing vocals?
About the Song
| Artist | The Police | Musician(s) | Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar, backup vocals), Stewart Copeland (drums, backup vocals) |
| Album | Outlandos d’Amour | ||
| Year | 1978 | ||
| Label | A&M Records | ||
| Writer(s) | Sting | ||
| Producer(s) | Stewart Copeland, Sting, Andy Summers | ||
| Buy this song: Amazon iTunes | Try Listen and Learn (BETA) | ||
Shmoop Connections
Sting was inspired to write "Roxanne" after staying in a hotel on the edges of Paris' Red Light District, imagining a story about saving a good-hearted prostitute from the ravages of the night.And her name? That came from an old theatre poster hanging in the hotel lobby: one advertising a long-forgotten production of Edmond Rostand's classic play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's Roxanne was the forbidden object of Cyrano's affections; the story of his unrequited love is as riveting as anything in literature.
Cyrano de Bergerac probably didn't have Sting's acrobatic vocal range—he was more famous for his huge nose than for his singing, after all—but it's still not hard to imagine Cyrano crying out Roxanne's name, letting loose with something like Sting's trademark wail.
On the Charts
"Roxanne" didn't make the charts when it was first released in 1978, but in 1979, it reached #12 in the UK and #32 in the U.S."Roxanne" ranks #398 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song appeared on every single one of the Police's Greatest Hits albums and the Police played "Roxanne" at the 2007 Grammys to kick off their sold-out reunion tour of 2007 to 2008. The tour ended up grossing $358 million, making it the third most lucrative concert tour of all time.