Chart entered : 14 August 1982
Chart peak : 16
Number of hits : 34
Another solo career beginning, another cover version.
After the tour to support their fourth album Ghost in the Machine , The Police agreed to a year off to pursue solo projects. Andy Summers made an album with Robert Fripp and Stewart Copeland worked on the soundtrack to Rumblefish . Sting was in a rather odd place, at war, simultaneously, with soon-to-be-ex-wife Frances Tomelty , the tabloids and Virgin over a publishing deal and with Adam Ant having lured the teen girls away although the success of Ghost... suggested The Police didn't need that audience any more. He decided to develop his acting career, having recently appeared in BBC 1's incomprehensible sci-fi drama Artemis 81.
His next film vehicle was the starring role in Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle. Potter's work had been made for the Beeb in the late seventies for the Play for Today strand with Michael Kitchen in the lead role but the suits got cold feet about the subject matter and it wasn't broadcast until many years later. You can find my review of the film here.
As usual since the success of Pennies from Heaven, Potter wanted to work in some popular songs from yesteryear and Sting was happy to record one for the closing titles. The B-side , the much more Police-like "Only You" is featured during the film. "Spread A Little Happiness" is a song from an obscure 1929 musical Mr Cinders and, as the title would suggest, is an exhortation to optimism sung by the male Cinderella character. Sting does it absolutely straight with a period, popular jazz, arrangement that made it difficult for radio producers to slot it into their shows. My mum bought it and I must admit it does have a pretty irresistible tune.
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