{"podcast":{"title":"Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia","slug":"hit-parade-music-history-and-music-trivia-59900","podcast_index_feed_id":59900,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/695d4ed8d1ba84fb8f043f94","website_url":"https://slate.com/podcasts/hit-parade","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/695d4ed8d1ba84fb8f043f94/show-cover.jpg","author":"Slate Podcasts","episode_count":215,"summary":"What makes a song a smash? Talent? Luck? Timing? All that—and more. Chris Molanphy, pop-chart analyst and author of Slate’s “Why Is This Song No. 1?” series, tells tales from a half-century of chart history. Through storytelling, trivia and song snippets, Chris dissects how that song you love—or hate—dominated the airwaves, made its way to the top of the charts and shaped your memories forever. Get more of Hit Parade with Slate Plus! Join for monthly early-access episodes, bonus episodes of \"The Bridge,\" and ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the our show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/hitparadeplus to get access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/hit-parade-music-history-and-music-trivia-59900"},"episode":{"title":"If You Love Sting, Set Him Free Edition Part 2","slug":"if-you-love-sting-set-him-free-edition-part-2","published_at":"2025-10-31T17:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/hit-parade-music-history-and-music-trivia-59900/if-you-love-sting-set-him-free-edition-part-2","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/hit-parade-music-history-and-music-trivia-59900","url":"https://shows.acast.com/hit-parade/episodes/695d4ef30c30a1408dc2922b","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/695d4ed8d1ba84fb8f043f94/e/1000732373573/media.mp3","summary":"Walk into any store or flip on a radio, and you’ll probably hear the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” sooner or later. Thanks to that ubiquity, the swooning, menacing megahit’s songwriter—Sting—is a very wealthy man. Now his former bandmates, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, are suing Sting over who deserves to profit from “Breath” and other Police songs. No matter how that dispute turns out, it’s a reminder of Sting’s uncanny songwriting skill and his charmed life of hitmaking. For more than four decades, Sting seems to resurface every few years with a new earworm, from “Roxanne” to “Russians,” blending New Wave rock with another genre—reggae, jazz, classical, country, even rap and Raï—and in the process, getting sampled by new generations of millennial and zoomer hitmakers. Join Chris Molanphy as he recounts the long, varied, sophisticated, but catchy career of the King of Pain. Whatever he tries, every little thing Sting does is magic. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","meta_description":"Walk into any store or flip on a radio, and you’ll probably hear the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” sooner or later. Thanks to that ubiquity, the swooni…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3117,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/hit-parade-music-history-and-music-trivia-59900/episodes/if-you-love-sting-set-him-free-edition-part-2/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/hit-parade-music-history-and-music-trivia-59900/if-you-love-sting-set-him-free-edition-part-2.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}