Artist	Song
Bob Marley & The Wailers	Sun Is Shining
from Bob Marley: Grooving Kingston 12 - The JAD Masters 1970-1972 (Box Set) (2004)
The Clash	White Riot
from The Essential Clash (2003)
Charles Mingus	Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
from Ken Burns Jazz (Charles Mingus) (2000)
Roxy Music	Love Is the Drug
from The Best of Roxy Music (2001)
David Bowie	Heroes
from Best of Bowie (2002)
The Stranglers	(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
from The UA Singles '77-'79 (2006)
Buzzcocks	What Do I Get?
from Singles Going Steady (1992)
Henry Cow	Bittern Storm Over Ulm
from Unrest (Remastered) (2005)

Comment:

The molten core of the Police's sound was formed in the midst of punk's explosion during the late '70s, but unlike most of their peers, the band didn't rely solely on rage to make their point. While you can hear echoes of the Buzzcocks, the Damned, and especially the Clash's "White Riot" blazing like a Molotov cocktail with a [i]real[/i] short fuse, the Police cast their musical net far out beyond their immediate scene. Charles Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," among other jazz standards, informed Sting's approach both to composing and playing the bass. Toots and the Maytals' "Monkey Man," with its rocksteady bass thump and banshee vocal, mapped out the sonic terrain that the Police would invade so successfully with "Roxanne." And Bryan Ferry's crisply clipped delivery on Roxy Music's "Love Is the Drug" takes the GQ fashion sensibility they adopted and buffs it out to a fine French-cuff finish.

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