Sting – The Dream Of The Blue Turtles
(A&M Records 1985 DREAM1)
Matrix No’s: A3/B3 – UK Pressing
Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are a few surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (born 2 October 1951), better known by his stage name Sting, is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He was the principal songwriter, lead singer, and bassist for the new wave rock band The Police from 1977 to 1984, before launching a solo career.
He has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age and worldbeat in his music. As a solo musician and a member of The Police, he has received 16 Grammy Awards (his first in the category of best rock instrumental in 1980, for “Reggatta de Blanc”), three Brit Awards, including Best British Male in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution in 2002, a Golden Globe, an Emmy and four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Police in 2003. In 2000, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording. In 2003, Sting received a CBE from Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for services to music, and was made a Kennedy Center Honoree at the White House in 2014. He was awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2017.
With The Police, Sting became one of the world’s best-selling music artists. Solo and with The Police combined, he has sold over 100 million records. In 2006, Paste ranked him 62nd of the 100 best living songwriters. He was 63rd of VH1’s 100 greatest artists of rock, and 80th of Q magazine‘s 100 greatest musical stars of 20th century. He has collaborated with other musicians, including “Rise & Fall” with Craig David, “All for Love”, with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, “You Will Be My Ain True Love” with Alison Krauss, and introduced the North African music genre raï to Western audiences by his international hit “Desert Rose” with Cheb Mami.
The Dream of the Blue Turtles is the first solo album by British pop singer-songwriter Sting, released in the United States on 1 June 1985, a year after The Police had unofficially disbanded. Though less successful than any of The Police’s albums, it managed to reach number 3 in the UK Album Charts.
It includes Sting’s first hit after The Police (his first solo hit, “Spread a Little Happiness”, was recorded while still a member of the Police), “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free”. Though the song reached number 3 in the US, it was a relative flop in the UK, where the album’s track “Russians” (about Cold War nuclear anxieties, which had peaked in the 1980s) proved more popular.
The movie Bring on the Night documents some of the recording work that produced this album, as well as the subsequent tour.
The album is named after a dream of Sting’s.
Track listing
All songs written by Sting except as noted.
Side one
- “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” – 4:14
- “Love Is the Seventh Wave” – 3:30
- “Russians” (Prokofiev, Sting) – 3:57
- “Children’s Crusade” – 5:00
- “Shadows in the Rain” – 4:56
Side two
- “We Work the Black Seam” – 5:40
- “Consider Me Gone” – 4:21
- “The Dream of the Blue Turtles” – 1:15
- “Moon over Bourbon Street” – 3:59
- “Fortress Around Your Heart” – 4:48
Personnel
- Sting – lead vocals, guitar, double bass on “Moon Over Bourbon Street”
- Omar Hakim – drums
- Darryl Jones – bass guitar
- Kenny Kirkland – keyboards
- Branford Marsalis – saxophones, miscellaneous percussion
- Dollette McDonald – backing vocals
- Janice Pendarvis – backing vocals
Additional personnel
- Pete Smith – additional background vocals
- Danny Quatrochi – additional background vocals, synclavier
- Elliot Jones – additional background vocals
- Jane Alexander – additional background vocals
- Vic Garbarini – additional background vocals
- The Nannies Chorus – additional background vocals
- Rosemary Purt – additional background vocals
- Stephanie Crewdson – additional background vocals
- Joe Sumner – additional background vocals
- Kate Sumner – additional background vocals
- Michael Sumner – additional background vocals
- Eddy Grant – congas (track 7)
- Frank Opolko – trombone (track 2)
- Robert Ashworth – additional guitar
Production details
- Engineers – Pete Smith and Jim Scott
- Producers – Pete Smith and Sting
- Photography – Max Vadukul and Danny Quatrochi
- Art direction and design – Michael Ross and Richard Frankel
- Recorded at Blue Wave Studios, St. Philip, Barbados and Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec
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