This week in 1997

1 I’ll Be Missing You Puff Daddy & Faith Evans 2 D’You Know What I Mean? Oasis

3 Freed From Desire Gala

4 C U When U Get There Coolio feat 40 Thevz 5 Free Ultra Nate

6 Ecuador Sash! feat Rodriguez

7 Blinded By The Sun Seahorses

8 Lazy Days Robbie Williams 9 History/Ghosts Michael Jackson 10 G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T. Changing Faces

If Sting needed the money, ‘Every Breath You Take’ would be his banker. The 1983 Police hit from his pen was heavily sampled on Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’ ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ and, as a result, Sting pocketed 100% of the publishing royalties. Given that ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ is among the best selling singles of all time (shifting around 8 million worldwide), it adds up to a pretty penny. On top of that, ‘Every Breath You Take’, the biggest US and UK hit of 1983, is in itself a significant earner for Sting. In 2003, twenty years after its release, it was estimated that he was raking in around €1,700 a day in royalties from the song.