31 year ago The Police Released Synchronicity

Synchronicity is the fifth and final studio album by The Police, released on 1 June 1983. The band's most popular release, it includes the hit songs "Every Breath You Take", "King of Pain", "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "Synchronicity II". Much of the material in this album was inspired by Arthur Koestler's The Roots of Coincidence, which is what the title and album's concept is based on. It was their second album to bear an English language title after their 1981 album Ghost in the Machine which was also inspired by another of Koestler's books. At the 1984 Grammy Awards the album was nominated for a total of five awards including the prestigious Album of the Year and won three. At the time of the album's release and following its immensely popular tour The Police were hailed as the "Biggest Band in the World".

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The album was number one on both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, and sold over 8 million copies in the US. Synchronicity was widely acclaimed by critics. Praise centred on its cohesive merging of disparate genres and sonic experimentation.The record has featured in numerous publications' lists of the best albums of the 1980s and the best albums of all time. Many consider Synchronicity to be the band's finest album, Rolling Stone described "each cut on Synchronicity is not simply a song but a miniature, discrete soundtrack." The same magazine went on to include it on their lists of the "100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s" and the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2009, "Synchronicity" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In the USA, the hit single "Every Breath You Take" was the best-selling single of 1983 and fifth best-selling single of the decade.