Wrapped Around Your Finger

"Wrapped Around Your Finger"
Single by The Police
from the album Synchronicity
B-side	"Someone to Talk To" (UK) "Tea in the Sahara" (live) (US)
Released	July 1983 (1983-07) UK January 1984 (1984-01) US
Format	7", 12"
Recorded	December 1982 at AIR Studios, Montserrat for basic tracks, then January–February 1983 at Le Studio, Quebec, Canada for overdubs and mixing
Genre	New wave
Length	5:13
Label	A&M – AM 127
Writer(s)	Sting
Producer(s)	The Police Hugh Padgham
The Police singles chronology
"Every Breath You Take" (UK, 1983) --- "Synchronicity II" (US, 1983) "Wrapped Around Your Finger" (1983) "Synchronicity II" (UK, 1983) --- "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" (US, 1986)
Alternative cover FRA/NL 12-inch single cover

"Wrapped Around Your Finger" is the second UK single (and fourth US single) from The Police's 1983 album Synchronicity. Written by Sting, it was released worldwide by A&M Records and featured the non-album track "Someone to Talk To" as a B-side in the UK, while a live version of "Tea in the Sahara" was the US B-side.

Like other tracks on Synchronicity, such as "Every Breath You Take" and "King of Pain," "Wrapped Around Your Finger" was a personal song for Sting. He said in an interview, "'Every Breath You Take,' 'Wrapped Around Your Finger' were all about my life."

Sting described "Wrapped Around Your Finger" as "a spiteful song about turning the tables on someone who had been in charge." Like other Police songs from this period, it features mythological and literary references, including the Scylla and Charybdis monsters of Greek mythology, and the German legend of Faust. It has a relatively slow, almost foreboding feel in the beginning verses, modulating to evoke a lighter, triumphant feel during the chorus.

"This song is vaguely alchemical and probably about a friend of mine, a professional psychic and my tutor in tarot, with bits of Doctor Faustus and 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' thrown into the pot for good measure."

"Wrapped Around Your Finger" was released as the follow-up to the worldwide hit "Every Breath You Take." In Britain, it reached number 7 on the UK Singles Chart in August 1983, and in the US, it was instead released as the fourth single from Synchronicity (after "Every Breath You Take," "King of Pain," and "Synchronicity II"). The single reached No. 8 on the Billboard chart in March 1984.

The British picture sleeve for "Wrapped Around Your Finger" was released in three colour variations: blue, red, and yellow. The single was also released on a picture disc, each featuring the face of Sting, Andy Summers, or Stewart Copeland. Out of the twelve thousand copies released, however, ten thousand had Sting's face on it, while Summers and Copeland appeared on one thousand each (making the latter two variations somewhat rare.)