180g Vinyl LP Reissue Remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell

The success of Reggatta de Blanc saw The Police touring at breakneck speed. Early 1980 found them returning to the States for the third time in 12 months before broadening their horizons with trips to Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Bombay, Eqypt and Europe. Everywhere, it seemed, loved The Police. It was an exhausted band that finally wrapped up these dates in April 1980 - Sting's voice had finally given up on him and a break was needed. Still, only two short months later, the band reconvened in Hilversum, Holland at the Wisseloord Studios. In hindsight, the band realized it was too soon, and they were back in the studio for the wrong reasons.

Sting said that he felt that, "The entire industry was waiting for an album. While I was writing it I was getting messages from the record company saying retailers were waiting for it. I had this impression of thousands of people, cogs in a great system, waiting for this album and I was sitting there struggling. And I got caught up in it, frankly."

Nevertheless, despite these pressures the band delivered an album better than anyone had a right to expect. Nigel Gray returned to produce the album with the band, and Sting delivered two more huge hits in the form of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da." Sting's songwriting also demonstrated a widening perspective - he was the first to admit that on the first two albums his songs were rather self centered but songs such as "Driven To Tears" and "When The World Is Running Down" showed that Sting was able to write about outside issues too. Zenyatta Mondatta was completed on the day that the band set off on another tour and was released in October 1980, lingering at the top of the UK charts for four weeks.

Sting added, "Zenyatta was our most flawed record. Surprisingly, that was also the one that made us big."