By the early 1980s, The Police were one of the biggest bands in the world, so Sting's 1985 solo album was huge news. Interestingly, The Police were apparently only on hiatus at this point, but they officially broke up shortly after a failed attempt at recording a new album in 1986.
Likely contributing to the breakup was the huge success of The Dream of the Blue Turtles (named after a dream that Sting had). The album showed significant musical growth for Sting as it was both more polished and jazzier than The Police. The result was an LP that peaked at #2 on the Billboard charts with four top 40 hits.
"Fortress Around Your Heart" was the third single off Blue Turtles and it reached #8 on the charts. In our view, it was the most Police-like single off Sting's first solo album, and the odd, atmospheric video didn't hurt the song's success a bit. In fact, it was all over MTV for a time in 1985.
Sting would go on to have almost continual success throughout his career, though he does seemed to have slowed down of late. The Police eventually reunited for a hugely successful 2007-08 tour, but then disbanded, seemingly for good.
