Reggatta de Blanc explained

Reggatta de Blanc
Type:studio
Artist:the Police
Cover:Police-album-reggattadeblanc.jpg
Recorded:February–August 1979 ("No Time This Time" in 1978)
Studio:Surrey Sound, Leatherhead, Surrey, UK
Length:41:52
Label:A&M
Prev Title:Outlandos d'Amour
Prev Year:1978
Next Title:Six Pack
Next Year:1980

Reggatta de Blanc is the second studio album by British rock band the Police, released on 5 October 1979 by A&M Records.[1] It was the band's first release to top the UK Albums Chart and features their first two UK number-one singles: "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon". In early 1980, the album was reissued in the United States on two 10-inch discs, one album side per disc, and as a collector's edition with a poster of the band.

The album's title loosely translates in French to "White Reggae". It was the band's second album to bear a Franglais title, after their 1978 debut album Outlandos d'Amour. Reggatta de Blanc proved more popular and successful than its predecessor. The title track earned the band their first Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

In 2003, Reggatta de Blanc was ranked at number 369 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Background

Reggatta de Blanc took four weeks to record, spaced over several months.[2] Unlike its successor, Zenyatta Mondatta, there was no pressure on the band. Of the sessions, drummer Stewart Copeland said, "We just went into the studio and said, 'Right, who's got the first song?' We hadn't even rehearsed them before we went in."[3]

Against the wishes of A&M Records, who had wanted to equip the promising band with a bigger studio and more famous producer, the Police opted to again record at Surrey Sound with Nigel Gray.[4] The small budget (between £6,000 and £9,000) was easily covered by the profits of their previous album, Outlandos d'Amour,[5] further ensuring that the record label would have no control over the actual creation of the band's music.

Whereas Outlandos d'Amour had benefited from one of the most prolific songwriting periods of Sting's life, the recording sessions for Reggatta de Blanc were so short on new material that the band even considered re-recording "Fall Out" at one point.[5] To fill in the gaps, Sting and Copeland dug up old songs they had written and used elements of them to create new songs. Much of the lyrics to "Bring On the Night" were recycled from Sting's Last Exit song "Carrion Prince (O Ye of Little Hope)" and "The Bed's Too Big Without You" similarly started as a Last Exit tune,[6] while "Does Everyone Stare" originates from a piano piece Copeland wrote in college.[7] The closing track "No Time This Time" was previously the B-side to "So Lonely" in November 1978, and was added to pad out the album's running time.

Music and lyrics

As on the band's first album, Reggatta de Blanc features the Police's original fusion of hard rock, British pop, reggae, and new wave music.[8] The instrumental "Reggatta de Blanc", one of the few songs written by the Police as a group, was developed from an extended instrumental piece that the band would typically work into their live performances of "Can't Stand Losing You".[9] "Bring On the Night" was written three years earlier as "Carrion Prince", the title taken from Ted Hughes's poem "King of Carrion", and is about Pontius Pilate; however, after reading The Executioner's Song, Sting felt that the words fitted Gary Gilmore's death wish, and says that since then, "I sing it with him in mind."[6] "The Bed's Too Big Without You" was covered by reggae singer Sheila Hylton in 1981, and became a UK Top 40 hit.[10]

Reception and legacy

Reggatta de Blanc continued to build on the success of Outlandos d'Amour, hitting number one on the British, Australian, and Dutch album charts upon its release in October 1979.[11] "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon" were released as singles and both reached number one in the UK, the band's first singles to do so.[11] According to rock journalist Tim Peacock, with its success, the album transformed the Police "into one of the post-punk era's defining bands".[12]

The album was met with positive reviews from magazines such as Smash Hits,[13] People,[14] and Rolling Stone. Writing for the latter in December 1979, Debra Rae Cohen said that objections to the band's stylistic appropriations of new wave and reggae are "rendered moot by the sheer energy of the band's rhythmic counter-punching".[15] In The Village Voices year-end Pazz & Jop poll of American critics nationwide, Reggatta de Blanc was voted the 35th best album of 1979.[16] Robert Christgau, the poll's creator and the Voices chief critic, was lukewarm about the album in (1981): "The idea is to fuse Sting's ringing rock voice and the trio's aggressive, hard-edged rock attack with a less eccentric version of reggae's groove and a saner version of reggae's mix. To me the result sounds half-assed. And though I suppose I might find the 'synthesis' innovative if I heard as much reggae as they do in England, it's more likely I'd find it infuriating." In 1981, the album's title track earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.[17] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Greg Prato said that the band's intense touring schedule leading up to the album had made their unique reggae rock fusion sharper, leading to a work that was "much more polished production-wise and fully developed from a songwriting standpoint", but also "more sedate" than their first album.

Reggatta de Blanc has appeared on professional listings of the greatest albums. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the record at number 369 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time;[18] on an updated version of the list published in 2012, it placed at number 372.[19] In 2006, it was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[20] In 2014, Spin cited it as one of the major moments in the history of white reggae.[21] In an interview with Modern Drummer, Stewart Copeland named it his favourite Police album.[22]

Personnel

The album credits are printed as: "All noises by the Police. All arrangements by the Police."[23]

The Police

Production

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1979–81)Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[27] 1
Italian Albums (Musica e dischi)[28] 7
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[29] 16

Year-end charts

Chart (1979)Position
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[30] 99
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[31] 25
Chart (1980)Position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)10
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[32] 12
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[33] 7
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[34] 15
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[35] 27
US Albums (Billboard 200)[36] 79

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: BPI.
  2. Sutcliffe . Phil . Outlandos at the Regatta . Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings . Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings . . . 1993 . 32–35 . box set booklet.
  3. Sounds, January 1980.
  4. Book: Summers, Andy . One Train Later . Andy Summers . . 2006 . 978-0-312-35914-0.
  5. Book: Sutcliffe . Phil . Fielder . Hugh . L'Historia Bandido . Proteus Books . 1981 . 61 . 0-906071-66-6.
  6. Book: L'Historia Bandido . Sutcliffe . Phil . Fielder . Hugh . Proteus Books . 1981 . 0-906071-66-6 . 36.
  7. Book: Copeland, Stewart . Strange Things Happen: A Life with the Police, Polo and Pygmies . Stewart Copeland . . 2009 . 978-0-00-733940-2 . 21–22 . registration.
  8. Book: Contemporary Musicians . LaBlanc . Michael . . 1989 . 0-8103-2213-7 . 222.
  9. 'I think if we came back ...' . . Spring 2000 . 18 November 2020 . Garbarini . Vic . https://web.archive.org/web/20180830003223/http://www.scarlet.nl/~gugten/article11.html . 30 August 2018 . dead.
  10. Web site: Sheila Hylton . . 18 November 2020.
  11. Web site: Police . . 28 January 2020.
  12. Web site: Peacock . Tim . 'Reggatta De Blanc': How The Police Hit Pay Dirt With Their Second Album . uDiscoverMusic . 2 October 2019 . 4 July 2020.
  13. Albums . . 1 . 22 . 4–17 October 1979 . Hepworth . David . David Hepworth . 29.
  14. Picks and Pans Review: Reggatta De Blanc . . 12 . 25 . 13 December 1979 . 31 October 2020.
  15. Reggatta De Blanc . . 13 December 1979 . 31 October 2020 . Cohen . Debra Rae.
  16. News: The 1979 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll . . 28 January 1980 . 4 July 2020.
  17. Web site: Police . . 18 November 2020.
  18. 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Reggatta de Blanc – The Police . . 18 November 2003 . 30 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101220143753/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/regatta-de-blanc-the-police-19691231 . 20 December 2010 . dead.
  19. 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . . 31 May 2012 . 18 November 2020.
  20. Book: 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . Dimery . Robert . . revised and updated . 2006 . 0-7893-1371-5.
  21. Martins . Chris . Rude Awakening: 25 Major Moments in White Reggae History . . 19 December 2014 . 18 November 2020.
  22. Bonar . Ted . Stewart Copeland: Top of the Pecking Order . . 25 . 11 . November 2001 . 70–86.
  23. Reggatta de Blanc . . . 1979 . AMLH 64792 . liner notes.
  24. Book: Copeland, Stewart . Stewart Copeland . 2023 . Stewart Copeland's Police Diaries . London . Rocket 88 . Police Diaries Revox Demos. 7 . Signature . 978-1-915156-01-3.
  25. http://gertonline.free.fr/muziques/police-sting/scopeland-interview-en03.htm Stewart Copeland Exclusive Interview by Gert-Peter Bruch
  26. The Police. J.D.. Considine. Musician. December 1981. 62.
  27. Book: Kent, David . Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 . David Kent (historian) . Australian Chart Book . St Ives, N.S.W. . illustrated . 1993 . 0-646-11917-6 . 235–36, 432.
  28. Web site: Classifiche . . it . 4 June 2022. Select "Album" in the "Tipo" field, type "Reggatta de blanc" in the "Titolo" field and press "cerca".
  29. Book: Okamoto, Satoshi . Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 . . 2006 . 978-4-87131-077-2.
  30. 1979 Top 100 Albums . . 32 . 13 . 22 December 1979 . 27 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130606060521/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.6920&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5 . 6 June 2013 . dead.
  31. Web site: Dutchcharts.nl – Jaaroverzichten – Album 1979 . Hung Medien . 27 November 2020 . nl.
  32. Top 100 Albums . . 34 . 6 . 20 December 1980 . 27 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113124/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.0275&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=mhe12pta2k83e08udtq66ot062 . 4 March 2016 . dead.
  33. Web site: Dutchcharts.nl – Jaaroverzichten – Album 1980 . Hung Medien . 27 November 2020 . nl.
  34. Web site: Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts. de. GfK Entertainment. 7 March 2021.
  35. Web site: Top Selling Albums of 1980 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart. Recorded Music New Zealand. 28 January 2022.
  36. Web site: Year End Charts — Pop Albums. 20 December 1980 . Billboard. 24 July 2022.