YOUNG TEACHER
THE SUBJECT
OF SCHOOL GIRL FANTASY
Zenyatta Mondatta
(stylized as Zenyattà Mondatta)
on the album cover artwork
is the third
studio album
by the English rock band
released on
October 3rd 1980
by A&M Records.
It was co-produced
by the band
and Nigel Gray.
Zenyatta Mondatta
reached number one
on the
UK Albums Chart
and number five
on the
US Billboard 200.
It produced the hit singles
"Don't Stand So Close to Me"
and
"De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da".
The album won
the band
two Grammy Awards:
Best Rock Performance
by a Duo or Group
with Vocal for
"Don't Stand So Close to Me"
and
Best Rock
Instrumental Performance for
"Behind My Camel".
Recording
Zenyatta Mondatta
was written during the
Police's second tour
and recorded in four weeks
(minus two days for concerts
in Ireland and at
the Milton Keynes festival
in the United Kingdom).
The band members
have often expressed
disappointment over
the album,
going so far as to
re-record two songs
during a brief,
unsuccessful reunion
in 1986.
Drummer
Stewart Copeland
said about the time pressures:
"We had bitten off
more than we could chew. ...
we finished the album at 4 a.m.
on the day
we were starting
our next world tour.
We went to bed
for a few hours
and then traveled down
to Belgium
for the first gig.
It was cutting it
very fine."
The band had wanted
to record the album
at Surrey Sound,
the recording site
of their first two albums,
but could not record
at any British studio
for tax reasons.
They were,
however,
able to retain
Nigel Gray
as their
co-producer,
bringing him with them
to Wisseloord Studios
in the Netherlands.
Feeling that he had played
a significant part
in the Police's
first two albums,
Gray negotiated for a
£25,000
(£113,000 in 2024) fee,
which brought the album's
total budget to
£35,000
more than twice
the combined budgets
of their first two albums,
but still exceptionally cheap
for a band who at
that point had
become established stars
As mentioned by Copeland,
the Police
embarked on a tour
of the world
the day of the
album's completion,
beginning in Belgium
and finishing in Australia.
However,
the finished mixes
did not sound as good
as expected
outside the studio
Gray attributed this
to the studio monitoring at
Wisseloord sounding very
"bassy and trebly",
thus not accurately
representing the
sound on tape.
Thus,
they re-mixed the album
in one day at
Strawberry Studios in
Dorking,
Surrey under pressure
from the record company
to meet the
October 1980
release date.
Composition
The album is the last
of the Police's
early era,
influenced by
reggae and punk
and featuring
few musical elements
on top of
the core guitar,
bass, and drums.
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