"Walking on the Moon" is a reggae song by British rock band the Police, released as the second single from their second studio album, Reggatta de Blanc (1979). The song was written by the band's lead vocalist and bassist Sting. It went on to become the band's second hit in the UK.

Background

Sting has said that he wrote the song when he was drunk one night after a concert in Munich. The following morning, he remembered the song and wrote it down. "I was drunk in a hotel room in Munich, slumped on the bed with the whirling pit when this riff came into my head. I got up and started walking round the room, singing 'Walking round the room, ya, ya, walking round the room'. That was all. In the cool light of morning I remembered what had happened and I wrote the riff down. But 'Walking Round the Room' was a stupid title so I thought of something even more stupid which was 'Walking on the Moon'."

• Sting In his autobiography, Sting implies that the song was partially inspired by an early girlfriend: "Deborah Anderson was my first real girlfriend...walking back from Deborah's house in those early days would eventually become a song, for being in love is to be relieved of gravity."
• Sting According to Sting, the song was originally recorded "as a rocker" in early versions, but it was reworked. The riff, which is played on the bass, was described as "weird" and "jazzy" by Sting. Guitarist Andy Summers came up with the chord "which hits after the bass notes" throughout the song. "Walking on the Moon" was released as the follow-up single to the British single "Message in a Bottle" in late 1979. The song was the Police's second number-one hit single in the United Kingdom. It also reached in Ireland and in Australia but did not chart in the United States. The B-side to the song, "Visions of the Night", was written by Sting. He said of the song, "This was the first song I wrote after going to London. It was hard to be serious about the whole thing. I was bemused, much to Stewart [Copeland]'s disgust." According to Copeland, the song was "too cerebral for [the band's] early audiences," so Sting would call it "Three O'Clock Shit", the title of a rejected Police song that appears as "Three O'Clock Shot" on Strontium 90: Police Academy.

Composition

"Walking on the Moon" has a "sparse" arrangement, centred around a three-note bass riff. It is one of the Police's more reggae-influenced songs.

Music video

The video was shot at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 23, 1979. It features the band miming to the track amidst spacecraft displays, interspersed with NASA footage. Sting plays a guitar rather than a bass, and Stewart Copeland strikes his drumsticks on a Saturn V moon rocket. It was directed by Derek Burbidge.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Personnel