Outlandos d’Amour was recorded between January and June of 1978, using funds borrowed from Drummer Stewart Copeland’s brother Miles. At the time, they had no label and no manager, with no foreseeable prospects of either. Occasionally, Miles Copeland would drop in on the sessions and leave disappointed with the results. It was not until he heard “Roxanne” that he was convinced that they had something. He took the song to A&M Records, who released the song as a single shortly thereafter. Even though it did not chart initially, A&M Records signed the band and released the album.

The band consisted of Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar), and the previously mentioned Stewart Copeland (drummer), who each came from jazz and prog rock roots. These influences were instrumental in creating the band’s sound along with Sting’s unique, and to some, polarizing vocal style. Elvis Costello once said of Sting, “Somebody should clip (him) round the head and tell him to stop singing in that ridiculous Jamaican accent.” Nevertheless, Sting’s delivery set him apart from all other frontmen.

“Next to You,” the opening track, comes bursting out of the gates, led by the manic drumming of Copeland and the slide guitar of Andy Summers. Neither Summers nor Copeland were fond of the song with their preference being something punk, harder and political. In a 2000 interview with Revolver, Sting reveals why they never went in that direction, “The truth is, we liked the energy of punk, but we couldn't really be a part of it. One of our problems was we were quite good at playing our instruments—that was definitely a handicap. You were supposed to have just come off the streets, having never played a bass or sang before.”