Released 2 November 1978 Label A&M Producer(s) The Police | Length 2:50 Writer(s) Sting "Next to You"
(1) "So Lonely"
(2) | |
"Next to You" is a song written by Sting and recorded by The Police as the opening track on their debut album Outlandos d'Amour in 1978.
The song was performed regularly on the early Police tours, and Sting later included it during his 'Broken Music' tour in 2005–2006. It was the song performed for the second encore during The Police's 2007 Reunion tour. In the Paris show (on 29 September), former band member Henry Padovani joined the band on stage to play this song. "Next to You" is the last song The Police played live together.
When Sting originally presented the song to his bandmates, they felt it was not aggressive nor political enough for the early punk sensibility of The Police. Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland suggested replacement lyrics, but Sting vetoed them and kept his original love song. The song also includes a slide guitar solo by Summers, which Copeland had dismissed as "old wave."
Additionally, the song appears in the music video game Rock Band as a playable track. For gameplay reasons, the song was also edited to have a proper ending, rather than just fading out as the song does on Outlandos d'Amour.