Before he became a spokesman for numerous social and environmental causes, Gordon Sumner was the lead singer and bassist for the mega-successful trio The Police. In 1984, however, the singer better known as Sting was simply a man without a band following the dissolution of The Police - albeit, a man with bright prospects. The Police had broken up at the height of their popularity, while they were one of the biggest acts in the world and had sold close to ten million copies of their 1983 album Synchronicity.

Sting wasted little time in establishing himself as a solo artist. The Police had barely concluded their lengthy tour to support Synchronicity when he was in the studio, accompanied by several jazz artist including Branford Marsalis, working on his first post-Police record. The Dream Of The Blue Turtles arrived in early summer of 1985, heralded by the single "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free."

Despite the jazz musicians he had recruited, "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" was not a drastic change of musical direction. It was arguably more pop than anything The Police had ever done and the production was slicker, but the song exhibited Sting's gift for melody and sophistication. With the great anticipation for Sting's solo debut, it quickly saturated the airwaves.

In mid-June, "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" became Sting's first solo US Top 40 hit and the song needed a mere six weeks to become his first Top Ten smash as well. The song was also popular at several other formats as well, reaching the Top Ten on the dance chart and topping the album rock chart. Sting even managed to take the song into the R&B Top Twenty.

The Dream Of The Blue Turtles was also proving that Sting would easily make the transition from The Police to solo act, climbing to #2 on the album charts, one notch higher than the peak position of "If You Love Somebody Set The Free" on the pop singles chart.

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