As quoted on his own website, Sting describes “When We Dance” (1994): “‘I wanted to bookend the Greatest Hits album with two new songs. It’s presumptuous, because you don’t know if a song’s going to be a hit, but ‘When We Dance’ seems to be going in the right direction. I’d never tried to write a hit before, a song designed to be played on the radio. This is basically a generic ballad, but it took me a year to write. I had no main idea for the song, so I came up with this love triangle. I love you and you love him. It has a flattened fifth at the end of the first line. It’s an unusual, uncomfortable sound, which suits the situation in the lyrics.’
A classic Sting ballad with a twist, the song was released as a (UK) single in October 1994 where it performed extremely well spending seven weeks on the chart and peaking at the #9 spot. It was less popular in the US, where its one week chart residency was at the #38 position.” The song became his only solo top 10 hit in the UK.
E major provides the setting for the tune’s first portion: a placid background for the twist of the knife that is the “flatted fifth” (which many would instead call a #11). 2:30 brings a side-step into a key change to F# major at 2:32.
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