Founded the Police with Sting and Padovani

In early 1977, Copeland founded the Police with lead singer-bass guitarist Sting and guitarist Henry Padovani (who was soon replaced by Andy Summers ), and they became one of the top bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Copeland was the youngest member of the band. The Police ‘s early track list (before their album debut) was largely Copeland compositions, including the band’s first single ” Fall Out ” ( Illegal Records , 1977) and the B-side “Nothing Achieving”. Though Copeland’s songwriting contribution was reduced to a couple of songs per album as Sting started writing more material, he continued to co-arrange all the Police ‘s songs together with his two bandmates. Amongst Copeland’s most notable songs are “On Any Other Day” (where he also sang lead vocals), “Does Everyone Stare” (later to be used as the title of his documentary on the band Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out ), “Contact”, “Bombs Away”, “Darkness” and “Miss Gradenko”. Copeland also co-wrote several songs with Sting, including “Peanuts”, “Landlord”, “It’s Alright for You”, and “Re-Humanize Yourself”.