Reggatta de Blanc

Template:For Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates {{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |{{#if: Template:Start date | Template:Short description}}}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Outlandos d'Amour1978Six Pack1980studioReggatta de BlancPolice-album-reggattadeblanc.jpgthe PoliceTemplate:Start dateFebruary–August 1979 ("No Time This Time" in 1978)Surrey Sound, Leatherhead, Surrey, UKTemplate:Flatlist41:52A&MTemplate:Flatlistx|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}}

Reggatta de Blanc is the second studio album by the English rock band the Police, released on 5 October 1979 by A&M Records.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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".<ref name="spin"/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> 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."<ref>Sounds, January 1980.</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The small budget (between £6,000 and £9,000) was easily covered by the profits of their previous album, Outlandos d'Amour,<ref name="Historia">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Historia"/> 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,<ref name="Exit songs">Template:Cite book</ref> while "Does Everyone Stare" originates from a piano piece Copeland wrote in college.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> "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."<ref name="Exit songs"/> "The Bed's Too Big Without You" was covered by reggae singer Sheila Hylton in 1981, and became a UK Top 40 hit.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name="UK Charts">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="aus"/><ref name="nld"/> "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.<ref name="UK Charts"/> According to rock journalist Tim Peacock, with its success, the album transformed the Police "into one of the post-punk era's defining bands".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The album was met with positive reviews from magazines such as Smash Hits,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> People,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In The Village VoiceTemplate:'s year-end Pazz & Jop poll of American critics nationwide, Reggatta de Blanc was voted the 35th best album of 1979.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Robert Christgau, the poll's creator and the VoiceTemplate:'s chief critic, was lukewarm about the album in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (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."<ref name="CG"/> In 1981, the album's title track earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="AllMusic"/>

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;<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> on an updated version of the list published in 2012, it placed at number 372.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2006, it was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2014, Spin cited it as one of the major moments in the history of white reggae.<ref name="spin">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In an interview with Modern Drummer, Stewart Copeland named it his favourite Police album.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Personnel

The album credits are printed as: "All noises by the Police. All arrangements by the Police."<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

The Police

• Sting – bass guitar, vocals
• Andy Summers – guitar, keyboards, vocals, guitar synthesiser on "Walking on the Moon"<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• Stewart Copeland – drums, vocals, rhythm guitar and bass (tracks 3 & 7),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> intro piano (track 10)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Production

• Nigel Gray – engineering, production
• The Police – production
• Janette Beckman – back cover photography
• Michael Ross – art direction, design
• James Wedge – front cover photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

Chart (1979–81)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name="aus">Template:Cite book</ref>	1
Italian Albums (Musica e dischi)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }} Select "Album" in the "Tipo" field, type "Reggatta de blanc" in the "Titolo" field and press "cerca".</ref>	7
Japanese Albums (Oricon)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	16

Year-end charts

Chart (1979)	Position
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	99
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	25

Chart (1980)	Position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name="aus"/>	10
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	12
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	7
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	15
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	27
US Albums (Billboard 200)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	79

External links

• Reggatta de Blanc (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)