The_Dream_of_the_Blue_Turtles

<i>The Dream of the Blue Turtles</i>

The Dream of the Blue Turtles

1985 studio album by Sting

The Dream of the Blue Turtles is the debut solo album by English musician Sting, released in June 1985. The album reached number three on the UK Albums Chart^[19] and number two on the US Billboard 200.

Quick Facts The Dream of the Blue Turtles, Studio album by Sting ...

The Dream of the Blue Turtles

Studio album by

Sting

Released

17 June 1985 ^[1]

Recorded

November 1984 – March 1985

Studio

Blue Wave Studio, Saint Philip, Barbados and Le Studio, Morin-Heights, Quebec, Canada

Genre

Pop rock^[2]
jazz rock^[3]

Length

41:40

Label

A&M

Producer

Sting and Pete Smith

Sting chronology

The Dream of the Blue Turtles
(1985)

Bring On the Night
(1986)

Singles from The Dream of the Blue Turtles

"If You Love Somebody Set Them Free"
Released: May 1985^[4]
"Love Is the Seventh Wave"
Released: August 1985 (UK)^[5]
"Fortress Around Your Heart"
Released: 11 October 1985 (UK)^[6]
"Russians"
Released: 29 November 1985^[7]
"Moon Over Bourbon Street"
Released: 7 February 1986^[8]
"We Work the Black Seam"
Released: 9 June 1986

More information Review scores, Source ...

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[9]
Chicago Tribune	^[10]
Los Angeles Times	^[11]
Orlando Sentinel	^[12]
Record Mirror	4/5^[13]
Rolling Stone	^[14]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[15]
The Sacramento Bee	^[16]
Smash Hits	6/10^[17]
The Village Voice	C+^[18]

Five singles were released from the album: "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free", "Fortress Around Your Heart", "Russians", "Moon Over Bourbon Street", and "Love Is the Seventh Wave". The album earned Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Engineered Recording; the instrumental title track was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance.

Background and release

Sting initially worked on tracks for his debut solo album with producers Torch Song: William Orbit, Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert.^[20] These sessions were more synth-driven and 'electrofunk' in nature than what eventually was recorded and released; Sting eventually decided against this direction, and instead decided to pursue more jazz-oriented music. The initial 1984 Torch Song sessions remain unreleased.^{[citation needed]}

The album is named after a dream that Sting had.^[21]

Although the single "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" reached No. 3 in the US, it only reached 26 in the UK, where the album's track "Russians" (about Cold War nuclear anxieties, which had peaked in the 1980s) proved more popular.^{[citation needed]}

In the UK the album was kept off No. 1 in the week of its release by Marillion's Misplaced Childhood and Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen occupying the top two places. However, in the US, the album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.^{[citation needed]}

The film Bring On the Night documents some of the recording work that produced this album, as well as the subsequent tour.^{[citation needed]}

Songs

The songs include "Children's Crusade" (paralleling the destruction of the younger generation in World War I to the devastation brought about by heroin addiction in modern-day London);^[22] a new, re-recorded version of the Police song "Shadows in the Rain" (featuring the original uptempo arrangement); "We Work the Black Seam" (about the UK miners' strike of 1984–85, and musically based on "Savage Beast", a song dating back to Sting's days in Last Exit); and "Moon Over Bourbon Street", a song inspired by Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire and on which he plays double bass.^[23] "Consider Me Gone" references the first quatrain of Shakespeare's Sonnet 35.

Accolades

Grammy Awards

More information Year, Nominee / work ...


Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
1986	The Dream of the Blue Turtles	Album of the Year^[24]	Nominated
1986	The Dream of the Blue Turtles	Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male^[25]	Nominated

Track listing

More information No., Title ...

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"If You Love Somebody Set Them Free"		4:16
2.	"Love Is the Seventh Wave"		3:32
3.	"Russians"	Sting / Sergei Prokofiev	3:58
4.	"Children's Crusade"		5:02
5.	"Shadows in the Rain"		4:50

All tracks are written by Sting, except where noted

More information No., Title ...

Side two
No.	Title	Length
6.	"We Work the Black Seam"	5:42
7.	"Consider Me Gone"	4:20
8.	"The Dream of the Blue Turtles"	1:18
9.	"Moon Over Bourbon Street"	4:00
10.	"Fortress Around Your Heart"	4:40

Singles

"If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" (1985) #3 US Hot 100, #26 UK Singles Chart
"Russians" (1985) #16 US Hot 100, #12 UK Singles Chart
"Fortress Around Your Heart" (1985) #8 US Hot 100, #49 UK Singles Chart
"Love Is the Seventh Wave" (1985) #17 US Hot 100, #41 UK Singles Chart
"Moon Over Bourbon Street" (1986) #44 UK Singles Chart^[19] – with a B-side of "The Ballad of Mack the Knife"

Personnel

Sting – vocals, guitars, double bass on (9), arrangements
Darryl Jones – bass guitar
Kenny Kirkland – keyboards
Branford Marsalis – soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet, percussion
Dominic Muldowney – additional arrangements (10)
Dolette McDonald – backing vocals
Janice Pendarvis – backing vocals
Omar Hakim – drums

Additional personnel

Danny Quatrochi – Synclavier, backing vocals
Robert Ashworth – guitars
Eddy Grant – congas (7)
Frank Opolko – trombone (2)
Pete Smith – backing vocals
Elliot Jones – backing vocals
Jane Alexander – backing vocals
Vic Garbarini – backing vocals
Pamela Quinlan – backing vocals
The Nannies Chorus – backing vocals
Rosemary Purt – backing vocals
Stephanie Crewdson – backing vocals
Joe Sumner – backing vocals
Kate Sumner – backing vocals
Michael Sumner – backing vocals

Production

Pete Smith – producer, engineer
Sting – producer
Jim Scott – engineer
Bob Ludwig – mastering at Masterdisk (New York, NY).
Max Vadukul – photography
Danny Quatrochi – photography
Michael Ross – art direction, design
Richard Frankel – art direction, design

Charts

More information Chart (1985–1986), Peak position ...

Weekly charts

Weekly chart performance for *The Dream of the Blue Turtles*
Chart (1985–1986)	Peak position
Australian Kent Music Report^[26]	1
Austrian Albums Chart^[27]	13
Canadian Albums Chart^[28]	4
Dutch Albums Chart^[29]	1
German Albums Chart^[30]	4
Japanese Oricon LP Chart^[31]	9
New Zealand Albums Chart^[32]	4
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart^[33]	4
Swedish Albums Chart^[34]	5
Swiss Albums Chart^[35]	6
UK Albums Chart^[36]	3
US Billboard 200^[37]	2

Year-end charts

1985 year-end chart performance for *The Dream of the Blue Turtles*
Chart (1985)	Position
Australian Albums Chart^[26]	18
Canadian Albums Chart^[38]	12
Japanese Albums Chart^[31]	71
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)^[39]	14
Swiss Albums Chart^[40]	27
UK Albums Chart^[41]	37
US Billboard 200^[42]	50

1986 year-end chart performance for *The Dream of the Blue Turtles*
Chart (1986)	Position
Australian Albums Chart^[26]	7
Canadian Albums Chart^[43]	71
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)^[44]	28
UK Albums Chart^[41]	41
US Billboard 200^[45]	33

Decade-end charts

Decade-end chart performance for *The Dream of the Blue Turtles*
Chart (1980–1989)	Position
Australian Albums Chart^[26]	32

Certifications and sales

More information Region, Certification ...

Certifications and sales for *The Dream of the Blue Turtles*
Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia	—	200,000^[46]
Canada (Music Canada)^[47]	Platinum	100,000^{^}
France (SNEP)^[48]	Platinum	300,000^*
Germany (BVMI)^[49]	Platinum	500,000^{^}
Hong Kong (IFPI Hong Kong)^[50]	Gold	10,000^*
Italy (FIMI)^[48]	Platinum	500,000^[48]
New Zealand (RMNZ)^[51]	Platinum	15,000^{^}
Spain (PROMUSICAE)^[52]	Gold	50,000^{^}
United Kingdom (BPI)^[53]	2× Platinum	600,000^{^}
United States (RIAA)^[54]	3× Platinum	3,000,000^{^}
Yugoslavia	—	50,000^[55]
^* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^{^} Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

[1]
"Brit certifications for Sting".
[2]
Pareles, John (17 June 1997). "The Dream of the Blue Turtles". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 7 November 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
[3]
Larkin, Colin (1999). All-Time Top 1000 Albums. Virgin Books. p. 101. ISBN 0-7535-0354-9. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021.
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[5]
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[6]
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[7]
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[8]
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[10]
Kot, Greg (7 March 1993). "Feeling A Sting". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
[11]
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[12]
Defendorf, Richard (30 June 1985). "Sting". Orlando Sentinel.
[13]
Levy, Eleanor (22 June 1985). "Sting: The Dream of the Blue Turtles". Record Mirror. p. 16.
[14]
Pareles, Jon (18 July – 1 August 1985). "Sting: The Dream Of The Blue Turtles". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 7 November 2007. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
[15]
Considine, J. D. (2004). "Sting". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 783–784. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
[16]
Macias, Chris; Barton, David (30 July 2000). "On the Sting beat: The Police and beyond". The Sacramento Bee.
[17]
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[18]
Christgau, Robert (25 June 1985). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
[19]
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[20]
Connelly, Christopher: Random Notes, Rolling Stone Issue 433, 25 October 1984.
[21]
"Sting: The Dream of the Blue Turtles". Archived from the original on 5 July 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2012. The title of the album came from a dream that woke me up on my first night in Barbados. I dreamed I was sitting in the walled garden behind my house in Hampstead, under a lilac tree on a well manicured lawn, surrounded by beautiful rosebushes. Suddenly the bricks from the wall exploded into the garden and I turned to see the head of an enormous turtle emerging from the darkness, followed by four or five others. They were not only the size of a man, they were also blue and had an air of being immensely cool, like hepcats, insouciant and fearless. They didn't harm me but with an almost casual violence commenced to destroy my genteel English garden, digging up the lawn with their claws, chomping at the rosebushes, bulldozing the lilac tree. Total mayhem. I woke up to the sound of Branford in the room upstairs, riffing wildly on his tenor sax, followed by his unmistakeable laughter.
[22]
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[23]
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[25]
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[26]
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[28]
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[30]
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[36]
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[37]
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[38]
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[39]
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[40]
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[41]
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[42]
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[43]
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[45]
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[46]
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[47]
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[48]
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[49]
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[50]
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[51]
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[52]
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[53]
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[54]
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[55]
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