The reason Sting felt The Beatles gave him a "licence" to write songs

6 January 2026, 14:18

Across both The Police and his solo career, Sting has written some stone cold classic tunes.

'Every Breath You Take', 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', 'Roxanne', 'Field of Gold'... the list goes on and on.

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And beyond any specific melodic or lyrical influence, it turns out that he credits The Beatles for giving him the belief that he could write songs.

There were definitely artists who wrote their own material before the Fab Four, but many of pops biggest hitters of the pre-Beatles era made do with songs given to them by professional songwriters.

The Beatles – and the songwriting duo of John Lennon and Paul McCartney in particular – really changed the game, shifting to an era where stars would feel that freedom to craft their own tunes.

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Sting's touring guitarist Dominic Miller has told Rick Beato that the ex-Police man was one of the many who built on the songwriting foundations The Beatles' laid down.

"As Sting has often said, actually – and we talk about this sometimes – is that The Beatles, by doing those songs and coming up with those compositions, they kind of gave a licence for everyone else to have a go," Miller said.

"These guys from Liverpool, if they can do it, everyone should try."

He added: "So it opened the floodgates for a lot of songwriters to have an attempt at writing songs, which had never really happened before in England, like pop songs – verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge."

Back in 2022 when he was promoting his most recent solo album The Bridge, Sting was reminded by Clash that McCartney wished that he'd written 'Fields of Gold', and was asked in turn what song he'd written.

"I could go on at length about McCartney songs I wish I'd written," Sting said.

The Beatles - The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby (From "Yellow Submarine") [Official Music Video]

"He's one of the reasons I became a songwriter myself.

"Lennon and McCartney were two working class grammar school kids from a Northern seaport, and they conquered the world with their songs, giving an entire generation permission to try and do the same.

"If I have to choose a Macca song, I'll go with 'Eleanor Rigby'. Compelling, mysterious, and utterly surprising!"