Roxanne

"Roxanne" failed to chart when The Police first released it as a single on 14 April 1978, but the record found its audience a year later. Issued in North America in early 1979, it entered the Billboard Hot 100 in February and peaked at No. 32 that April, prompting a UK re-release that reached No. 12. The song had been written by Sting after the band stayed in a seedy Paris hotel in October 1977, where he saw prostitutes on the nearby streets. The title came from a poster in the hotel foyer for the play Cyrano de Bergerac.

Sting originally conceived the piece as a bossa nova, though he credited drummer Stewart Copeland with suggesting the tango rhythm it finally took. During recording at Surrey Sound Studios, Sting accidentally sat on a piano keyboard, and the resulting atonal chord and laughter were left at the start of the track. The band themselves considered the song a throwaway, and guitarist Andy Summers recalled feeling embarrassed to play it for Miles Copeland, who favoured fast punk material. Miles proved enthusiastic, calling it a knockout, and took it to A&M Records, where it secured the band a contract for one single and became their first release for the label.

Written from the point of view of a man who falls in love with a prostitute, the track appeared on the debut album Outlandos d'Amour, released that November. In 1997, Puff Daddy remixed it as "Roxanne '97", featuring raps from Pras and samples from UTFO's "Roxanne, Roxanne", and it reached No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100.