[Verse 1]
Giant steps are what you take
Walking on the moon
I hope my legs don’t break
Walking on the moon
We could walk forever
Walking on the moon
We could live together
Walking on, walking on the moon
Walking back from your house
Walking on the moon
Walking back from your house
Walking on the moon
Feet they hardly touch the ground
Walking on the moon
My feet don’t hardly make no sound
Walking on, walking on the moon
[Chorus]
Some may say
I’m wishing my days away
No way
And if it’s the price I pay
Some say
Tomorrow’s another day
You stay
I may as well play
[Verse 1]
Giant steps are what you take
Walking on the moon
I hope my legs don’t break
Walking on the moon
We could walk forever
Walking on the moon
We could live together
Walking on, walking on the moon
[Chorus]
Some may say
I’m wishing my days away
No way
And if it’s the price I pay
Some say
Tomorrow’s another day
You stay
I may as well play
[Outro]
Keep it up, keep it up
Yo yo yo yo
“Walking on the Moon” is a song by English rock band The Police, released as the second single from their second studio album, Reggatta de Blanc (1979). The song was written by the band’s lead vocalist and bassist Sting when he was drunk. It went on to become the band’s second number one hit in the UK.
Background
Sting said that he wrote the song when he was drunk one night after a concert in Munich. That following morning, he remembered the song and wrote it down.[1][2]
I was drunk in a hotel room in Munich, slumped on the bed with the whirling pit when this riff came into my head. I got up and started walking round the room, singing ‘Walking round the room, ya, ya, walking round the room’. That was all. In the cool light of morning I remembered what had happened and I wrote the riff down. But ‘Walking Round the Room’ was a stupid title so I thought of something even more stupid which was ‘Walking on the Moon’.
In his autobiography, Sting alludes that the song was partially inspired by an early girlfriend:[3]
Deborah Anderson was my first real girlfriend…walking back from Deborah’s house in those early days would eventually become a song, for being in love is to be relieved of gravity.
According to Sting, the song was originally recorded “as a rocker” in early versions, but it was reworked.[2] The riff, which is played on the bass, was described as “weird” and “jazzy” by Sting.[2] Guitarist Andy Summers came up with the chord “which hits after the bass notes” throughout the song.[2]
“Walking on the Moon” was released as the follow-up single to the British number one single, “Message in a Bottle,” in late 1979. The song was The Police’s second number-one hit single in the United Kingdom.[4] It also reached number one in Ireland and number nine in Australia but the single didn’t chart in the United States.
The B-side to the song, “Visions of the Night,” was written by Sting. Sting said of the song, “This was the first song I wrote after going to London. It was hard to be serious about the whole thing. I was bemused, much to Stewart [Copeland]‘s disgust.”[2] According to Copeland, the song was “too cerebral for [the band’s] early audiences,” so Sting would call it ‘Three O’Clock Shit’, the title of a rejected Police song that appears as ‘Three O’Clock Shot’ on Strontium 90: Police Academy.[2]
A music video for the song was shot at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 23 October 1979. It features the band members miming to the track amidst spacecraft displays, interspersed with NASA footage. Both Sting and Andy Summers strum guitars (not bass) in the video, and Stewart Copeland strikes his drumsticks on a Saturn V moon rocket.
Composition
“Walking on the Moon” has a “sparse” arrangement, centred around a three-note bass riff.[2]Sting performs lead vocals on the song. It is one of The Police’s more reggae-influenced songs.
Track listing
7″ A&M / AMS 7494 (UK)
“Walking on the Moon” (Edit) – 3:59 (This edit has yet to appear on CD anywhere)
