The 30 Best Police Covers Ever

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10. DubXanne — Spirits in a Material World (Spirits in a Dubworld)

The first wave of punk soon incorporated a stream of ska, as one of the early waves of Jamaican music traveled with the parents of punk musicians to the streets of the UK. The Police adopted punk as a convenience, but bypassed ska and went straight to reggae when their palette expanded. They felt the music deeply, and eventually spent time in Jamaica when their budgets allowed them to do so. It may not just have been the music. You could read the Material World to be Babylon, quite easily.

The DubXanne project, based in Germany, brought so much history and flavor to their Police Dub album. Dub poet and polymath Benjamin Zephaniah was the UK’s most prominent dub poet and, at times, the country’s most popular living poet in any genre. To have him adapt Sting’s words in this track honors them both, and to have them deliver the words brings real joy. A truly remarkable cover and extension of the music and message. — Mike Tobyn

9. Alien Fashion Show — Roxanne

Often described as “Frank Sinatra hanging out with David Bowie,” Alien Fashion Show emerged during the late-1990s swing revival, distinguishing themselves from their contemporaries with a futuristic edge. Their cover of “Roxanne” reimagines The Police classic as a smoky lounge performance. Both playful and sophisticated, this version highlights the melody’s timeless quality while giving the song an entirely different personality. Unlike many rock-to-swing reinterpretations that lean toward novelty or parody, Alien Fashion Show approaches the material with genuine respect. The result feels less like a gimmick and more like an alternative universe where The Police are a three-piece jazz combo, featuring Sting plucking a double bass while delivering the vocals. — Eric Taylor

8. Denmark + Winter — Don’t Stand So Close to Me

The fun, electro-pop background of this song belies the ethereal and earnest pleading vocals. Dramatic drum beats keep us grounded though, maintaining the seriousness throughout the whole cover. This is the opposite approach of the original, which starts with a more serious tone and then quickly shifts towards a more upbeat pop sound. By the end of this version, though, the vocals have built up in confidence; the plea turns to a command. — Sara Stoudt

7. Supergrass — Next to You

When the Police were starting out, they were a little older and a little better with their instruments than most of their peers. Perhaps in reaction to that, they fully embraced punk ethos on their earliest songs – listen to Sting hammer that bass in “Dead End Job” if you don’t believe me. Most of the roughest edges were sanded off by the time of their first album, but they still brought pogoing energy to songs like “Next to You.” Supergrass, who know a thing or two about the ruffian sound of pop-punk, are right at home in their cover, getting everything right from the harmonies to the helplessness of young lust. — Patrick Robbins

6. The Afghan Whigs — Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

Full of longing and what can only be described as joyful discord, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, is the bright-eyed sore thumb of the cynical-beautiful Ghost In The Machine album. Inspired by Sting’s separation from wife Frances Tomelty and love for her best friend Trudie Styler whom he later wed (!), it was also my primary unrequited love theme back in high school in 1981, and so possesses a “tragic” personal meaning for me (Oh, the heartbreak. One date, then ghosted old-school style. “It’s always me that ends up getting wet” indeed). As a result of all this, I feel irrationally protective of it. In terms of covers, this song has been massacred and disrespected too many times to count, from the hills of American Idol to bar-band Hawaiian-shirted barbecues on YouTube. It is a desperate admission, a self-flagellating heartbreaker commonly treated as a celebration. (That’s our Sting: semi-eternally misunderstood.)

Greg Dulli and Afghan Whigs get it painfully right. Their 2014 cover doesn’t stomp. It creeps. It mourns. It wants! The bridge is gorgeously gripping.The guitar in the coda glistens. But most of all, it’s the perfectly desperate, raw ‘n’ rough, downright soaring Dulli vocal that lands it, eee-oh-oh. — Hope Silverman

5. Lucy Kaplansky — Secret Journey

Lucy Kaplansky came to New York at 18, determined to be a folk singer. She had some success in the scene, but she returned to school to become a psychologist, while still gigging and forming a duet with Shawn Colvin. After getting her degree, she decided to focus on her psychology career, occasionally performing and doing studio work. In the early 1990s, she began to move back into music, and Colvin offered to produce an album for her. Her debut album, The Tide, included a handful of original songs, but also several well-chosen covers, including the Police’s “Secret Journey.” By the time the Police released the song on Ghost in the Machine, they had expanded their sound to include horns and synthesizers, which wash through the original, befitting its mystical and spiritual message and roots. Kaplansky, interestingly, was uninterested in the psychological ambiguity, transforming the song into a fast, folk/bluegrass romp. — Jordan Becker

4. Grace Jones — Demolition Man

There was some discussion behind the scenes as to whether Grace Jones’s “Demolition Man” counted as a cover, as she released her version a full eight months before the Police released theirs. In the end, we decided that if the Beatles weren’t covering Aretha’s “Let It Be,” we could let this slide. Good thing too, as Jones, always more about corners than curves, takes away the jazz stylings and gives the song an angular, driven take. Detached yet somehow still passionate, the song moves from analog to digital, a perfect fit for the early ’80s. — Patrick Robbins

3. Juliana Hatfield — Can’t Stand Losing You

Juliana Hatfield has released three albums focused solely on one artist. (The other two concentrated on Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra.) In each instance, Hatfield reviews the work of a well-known artist and sees what else can be found inside these songs that so many of us know by heart. Hatfield plays most of the instruments and provides all the vocals, so it’s clearly a deep and considered approach.

With this opening track of her 2019 album titled Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police, she dials back the reggae vibe and dials up the pop. It is a great show of how mailable these songs can be. It’s a fun, upbeat track that instantly pulls you into the record, eager to see what else Hatfield will find in the material. — Luke Poling

2. Leaders of the Shift — Bring on the Night

“Bring on the Night” is often interpreted as a song about a death wish, where someone longs from the darkness to engulf and end their pain. However, there are people who, more literally, want the night to come, so that they can come out and play. Dancers and clubbers. Vampires.

Leaders of the Shift are exceptional musicians from the Berklee School of Music. Music schools can be places where musicians can express themselves freely at any time of the day or week. Band guitarist and vocalist John Shannon takes exceptional pleasure in imagining the joys of the night. Jam sessions with the musicians he loves. But there is just enough cackling in his vocal delivery to make you wonder whether something more is behind his embrace of the dark. Consume with garlic. — Mike Tobyn

1. Alanis Morissette — King Of Pain

“King of Pain” remains a proudly self-pitying classic for all (of us) majestic losers. Sting himself has acknowledged its beautiful silliness (that’s his soul up there). Yes, Alanis Morissette’s decision to perform “King of Pain” on her 1999 MTV Unplugged episode is pretty on-the-nose. She was/is, of course, renowned for her anthemic, melodic angst. And “King of Pain” is all that and more, with a wink. In other words, it is very, very Alanis (in the best way). Nothing remotely fancy or experimental happens in this cover. There is no grand reinvention. It has a straight-up, old-school, traditional rock band sound, and Alanis belts it out with her usual conviction. No frills. No outrageous attempt to take ownership of the song via key changes or wild soloing. But she does own it. Enough that when she sings the chorus as “Queen of Pain” in the last verse, you accept it without question. She is—and it’s absolutely f-ing beautiful. — Hope Silverman

Check out more installments in our monthly “Best Covers Ever” series, including Led Zeppelin, Taylor Swift, The Clash, and more.

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