Essay: Comparing two versions of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”

Music changes meaning. Music impacts, curves—potentially even undermines—how we understand words. People assume that all meaning is carried by the lyrics, and therefore, so long as the words are the same, the song “says” the same thing. For this paper, I used two versions of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic,” one the hit song by The Police that everybody knows, the other the lesser-known version by Sleeping at Last to show how the original and the cover of a song can be similar and different at the same time.
“Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” is a song by the English rock band The Police. Sting, the lead vocals, bass guitar, and primary songwriter of The Police, wrote the song in 1976 and recorded an acoustic demo version using Mike Howlett’s recording equipment when The Police used to be known as Strontium 90. The piano part was later added on in 1981 after a session with keyboardist Jean Roussel, whom Sting invited to play on the track against the wishes of his bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland. This song was later released as the single from The Police’s fourth album, Ghost in the Machine. “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” became a hit single that reached the top of the charts in the United Kingdom in November 1981 and hit number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart that same year. In 1982, this song won the Best Pop Song at the annual Ivor Novello Awards. Due to the success of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic,” multiple artists created covers of the hit song. Specifically, Sleeping at Last, the moniker of Chicago-based singer-songwriter, producer and composer, Ryan O’Neal, covered “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” and was featured on a Grey’s Anatomy episode on May 2014. I aim to compare The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” from the album Ghost in the Machine and Sleeping at Last’s cover of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” from the album Covers, Vol. 1 based on their instrumentations, musical structures, and interpretation of the lyrics.
The Police’s and Sleeping at Last’s versions of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” are made of completely different instrumentations. Although the Police is basically a guitar trio, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” is far from it, being based mostly around a piano and a synthesizer. The foundation of the song consists of a fretless bass, drums, and a rhythm guitar. The rhythm of the song consists of the synthesizer in the chorus and a delayed guitar in the verse. The lead consists of The Police’s vocals. The fills consist of a chorused guitar in the bridge and piano in the verses. There are multiple layers of piano and synthesizer that do not all necessarily play at the same time but tend to overlap one another. Since the guitar is seamlessly blended into the rhythm section, one does not hear much of the guitar except for the beginning of the verse and the bridge. The doubled vocals seem to be in the back of the mix while the piano and the synthesizer are in the front due to either the mastering feel or the overdub from the demo. In an interview on September 1993, Sting said:
This was first recorded as a demo, with the piano figure, in a studio in Montreal. I had written the song long before the Police were successful, but it seemed a bit soft for the band at first. But the demo was really great. It sounded like a No. 1 song to me. I took it to the band, who were reticent, still thinking it was soft. I was saying, “But listen, it’s a hit.” We tried to do it from scratch as the Police, but it didn’t have the same energy as the demo. After a degree of hair-pulling and torturing on my part, I got the band to play over the top of my demo (The Police Official Website).
Compared to The Police’s original song, Sleeping at Last’s cover of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” takes on a completely different instrumentation. The piano is the main instrument used in the song, while a subtle chorus and orchestra are the fills of the song. There was no use of The Police’s prominent instruments such as the synthesizer and different types of guitars. Ryan O’Neal’s vocals are the only vocals featured in this song, compared to The Police’s doubled vocals. Sleeping at Last’s version of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” is made up of a softer instrumentation compared to The Police’s version due to the combination of a piano, chorus, and orchestra.
The basic details of the musical structures of The Police’s version and Sleeping at Last’s version of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” have similarities and differences. Since their rock style is influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz, The Police’s version of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” has a contrasting verse-chorus form, strong rhythmic beat, upbeat tempo, feel-good melody, loud dynamics, and polyphonic structure. In an interview on September 1993, Sting talked about the structure of the song:
I like the song, especially the ascending bass figure. The half tones are unusual. It’s unashamedly a pop song. And it was a lot of energy. Stewart must be about the most amazing drummer—in the history of rock’n’roll. He was a nightmare for me to play with, though. He and I have a different interpretation of where the beat is. I like to push the beat with the bass, be slightly ahead of it, which means I have to have a drummer to hold me down, the drummer has to be rock solid. But Stewart is the same as me—he likes to push the beat too, so we’d get faster and faster and be racing absurdly by the end (The Police Official Website).
Since his rock style is influenced by emo-inflected alternative, Sleeping at Last’s version of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” also has a contrasting verse-chorus form and polyphonic structure but it has a delicate rhythmic beat, a slower and relaxing tempo, a heartfelt melody, and softer dynamics. The basic details of the musical structure of The Police’s version of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” make the song fall under the genre of pop rock with reggae undertones; however, the basic details of the musical structure of Sleeping at Last’s version of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” make the song fall under the genre of soft pop with acoustic undertones. Both the original and the cover have each verse/chorus build up a bit more, adding new parts and instruments with each occurrence. The Police’s version and Sleeping at Last’s version of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” have similar and differing musical structures.
The instrumentations and musical structures of the Police’s version and Sleeping at Last’s version affect the audience’s interpretation of the lyrics of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic.” Since the cover also used the original lyrics, the lyrics for both covers described someone who was falling in love with a girl but he does not know how to tell her. The combination of guitars, multiple piano tracks, drums, and synthesizer creates an upbeat and feel-good sound that in turn makes the audience interpret the song as a lively dance and celebratory song. On YouTube, people post comments of an exciting and fun type of love. The lyrics of the chorus says, “Every little thing she does is magic; everything she does just turns me on even though my life before was tragic, now I know my love for her goes on”, which can be interpreted as someone falling or being in love with someone else. On YouTube, user Ben Booth says, “Literally, this [Every Little Thing She Does is Magic] is the feeling you get when you fall in love with someone.” The combination of piano, chorus, and orchestra creates a softer and slower sound that in turn makes the audience interpret Sleeping at Last’s cover as an acoustic love ballad. On YouTube, people post comments of slowly falling in love, being in love, or unrequited love. Lyrics such as “Though I’ve tried before to tell her of the feelings I have for her in my heart; every time that I come bear her I just lose my nerve as I’ve done from the start” can be interpreted as someone experiencing unrequited love. For example, user Ahmed Gurey says, “I used to listen to this song with my best friend from my childhood who is a girl. I started having feelings for her as we grew up. We got together but it ended. We are not that close anymore. This song reminds me of her.” Both of the songs most notable lyrics are the lyrics of the second verse: “Do I have to tell the story of a thousand rainy days since we first met? It’s a big enough umbrella but it’s always me that ends up getting wet.” Sting loved the lyrics so much, he used them again at the end of the song “O My God” in their next album, Synchronicity, and in “Seven Days” on Sting’s solo album Ten Summoner’s Tales. In the original, the second verse was similar to the other verses in the basic details of the musical structure; however, the cover adds a chorus background track and an orchestra along with the lead vocal and delicate piano melody, showing how Sleeping at Last is emphasizing these lyrics by calling attention to this specific verse. The instrumentation and musical structures of the Police’s version and Sleeping at Last’s version impact the interpretations of the lyrics of the theme of love in “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”.
The original and cover of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” has many similarities and differences in instrumentations, musical structures, and interpretations of the lyrics. The Police and Sleeping at Last both use the piano as the main instrument of the song, but The Police used a variety of rock instruments such as guitars and synthesizer while Sleeping at Last used an orchestra and a chorus. Both songs have each verse/chorus build up with the addition of new instruments and parts; however, the original has a more upbeat tempo and energetic dynamics while the cover has a slower and relaxing tempo and soft dynamics. The audiences of The Police and Sleeping at Last interpreted the song as love song but the original was interpreted as celebratory and exciting type of love while the cover was interpreted as a slow type of love. Sleeping at Last’s cover of The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” was composed of interesting instrumentation and musical structures that completely changed the original meaning of the lyrics.