Oscar Wilde a dit that an artist has succeeded if people don't understand his work but they still like it. par that standard, the Police were a huge success. Their songs are universal — they're part of all of our lives. toi hear them on both pop and classic-rock stations, and they'll be played on the radio in Germany 100 years from now. At the same time, everything they did was really smart and worked on a few levels; toi could l’amour a particular song, then realize a an later that toi had totally missed the meaning.

Take "Every Breath toi Take." It's a great trick — it's impossibly catchy,...