CoronaVinyl Day 182 (P): Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "P," and my choice is The Police's third studio album, 1980's Zenyatta Mondatta.  I believe I got this from a co-worker as part of a Secret Santa exchange at work 16 or 17 years ago, along with a couple other vintage albums, making it the best Secret Santa haul I ever got.

Zenyatta Mondatta is kind of the last album of The Police's initial era that was influenced at least in part by reggae, dub, and punk, before they moved to a more pop sound, though this album does have its share of pop.  The title itself is just jibberish that the band made up because it rolled off the tongue nicely.

The album did well commercially, topping the album charts in the UK and Australia, the band's second #1 album in both countries.  It was also the breakthrough album for the band in the U.S., going to #5 on the Billboard album chart, becoming the band's first album to crack the Top 20 in the U.S.   Elsewhere, it also reached the Top 5 on the album charts in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.  It also earned the band two Grammy Awards, one for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and another for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Behind My Camel," the latter of which was written by guitarist Andy Summers, and Sting hated the song so much he refused to play bass on it (Summers played the bass) and buried the tape of it in the garden outside the studio.

It also features two of the band's most well-known songs, "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da."  The former -- which is a very poignant COVID song -- went to #1 on the UK pop chart, and the latter went to #5.  Both songs went to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, making them the band's first songs to go higher than #32 in the U.S. 

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Canary in a Coalmine"

This is a punchy, uptempo reggae-ish song, with the band's signature three-pronged vocals, with Summers and Stewart Copeland backing Sting.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Man in a Suitcase"
This kind of seems like the counterpart to "Canary in a Coalmine."  It's a poppy, reggae rock song, which is the kind of Police song I generally liked more than their poppier or softer stuff.