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"All This Time"
Single by Sting
from the album The Soul Cages
B-side	"I Miss You Kate" "King of Pain" (live)
Released	31 December 1990 (1990-12-31)
Length	4:55
Label	A&M
Songwriter(s)	Sting
Producer(s)	Hugh Padgham
Sting singles chronology
"They Dance Alone" (1988) "All This Time" (1990) "Mad About You" (1991)
Audio
"All This Time" (edit) on YouTube

"All This Time" is a song by English musician Sting. It was released as the first single from his third studio album, The Soul Cages (1991), on 31 December 1990 by A&M Records. The song was a chart success, especially in North America, reaching No. 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100, topping the Billboard Album Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts, and peaking at number one on Canada's RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart.

Lyrics

The lyrics provide a reference to the death of Sting's father, symbolized by the image of a young boy, Billy, who, at the death of his father, wishes to bury him at sea instead of going through the Catholic rites:

"Two priests are at Billy's father's deathbed—he's been injured in a shipyard accident—and Billy doesn't want the ritual that's being served up, he wants to take his father and bury him at sea."

— Sting, Q, 2/91

Despite the dark lyrics, the uptempo tune of the song foils their macabre undertone:

"It's about the death of my father, so it's pretty dark as a record but on this song the words are foiled by this fairly jolly tune. That's something I like to do quite a lot, combine dark subject matter with up music. No, it's not based on a dream. The lyrics seem surreal, but they are all images I remembered from my home town: ferries, priests, shire horses. I grew up by the shipyards. I just wanted to escape. I suppose it was quite a surreal place, though. It is the landscape of my dreams"

— Sting, Independent On Sunday, 11/94

The imaginary character, Billy, is also referred to in the lyrics to the opening song on The Soul Cages, "Island Of Souls".

History

"All This Time" opened the set on The Soul Cages tour. After this, the song was not performed again until 2000 during the Brand New Day tour. The song lent its name to the ...All This Time live album which was recorded on September 11, 2001, at Sting's villa in Tuscany.

The music video depicts the wry, black humour of the song and is set aboard a cruise ship that constantly tilts from side to side. It features Melanie Griffith as a manicurist and Sting's wife Trudie Styler dressed as a French maid, and recreates the overcrowded stateroom scene from the Marx Brothers' 1935 film A Night at the Opera. As Sting's stateroom slowly fills with people, the two priests mentioned in the lyrics emerge from a bathtub, to the terror of a boy who is using it at the time, and the antics on the ship prompt a man on a dock to abandon his effort to drown himself and come aboard instead. The last verse is punctuated by a vaudeville performer attempting to do a dance routine while the spotlight keeps moving away from him; he finally gets fed up and storms off the stage. At the end of the video, when the priests enter the room, Sting throws his luggage out of the stateroom's porthole, jumps after it, and sinks slowly into the ocean as a lifebuoy is thrown toward him.

Track listings

• 7-inch and cassette single

1. "All This Time"
2. "I Miss You Kate" (instrumental)

• 12-inch and CD single

1. "All This Time"
2. "I Miss You Kate" (instrumental)
3. "King of Pain" (live)

• Japanese maxi-CD single

1. "All This Time" (edit)
2. "King of Pain" (live)
3. "We'll Be Together" (extended mix)
4. "Someone to Watch Over Me"
5. "I Miss You Kate"

Charts

See also

• List of European number-one airplay songs of the 1990s
• List of number-one mainstream rock hits (U.S.)
• List of number-one modern rock hits of 1991 (U.S.)
• List of RPM number-one singles of 1991

References

1. "Sting: The New Single – All This Time" (PDF). Music Week. 22 December 1990. p. 4. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
2. ^ "Sting.com: Song details for All This Time: Artist Comments". Archived from the original on 24 December 2008. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
3. "Sting.com: Song details for Island Of Souls: Lyrics". Archived from the original on 2 March 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
4. ^ "Sting.com: Song details for All This Time: Description". Archived from the original on 24 December 2008. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
5. All This Time (UK 7-inch single sleeve). Sting. A&M Records. 1990. AM 713.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
6. All This Time (UK cassette single sleeve). Sting. A&M Records. 1990. AMMC713.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
7. All This Time (UK 12-inch single sleeve). Sting. A&M Records. 1990. AMY 713.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
8. All This Time (UK CD single liner notes). Sting. A&M Records. 1990. AMCD 713.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
9. All This Time (Japanese maxi-CD single liner notes). Sting. A&M Records. 1991. PCCY-10192.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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13. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 1462." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
14. "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 1493." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
15. "Top 10 in Europe" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 8, no. 6. 9 February 1991. p. 22. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
16. "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 8, no. 5. 2 February 1991. p. 23. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
17. Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.
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21. "Classifiche". Musica e dischi (in Italian). Retrieved 28 May 2024. Set "Tipo" on "Singoli". Then, in the "Artista" field, search "Sting".
22. "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 6, 1991" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
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26. "Top 10 Sales in Europe" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 8, no. 10. 9 March 1991. p. 42. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
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28. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
29. "Sting Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
30. "Sting Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
31. "Sting Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
32. "Sting Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
33. "AOR Tracks" (PDF). Radio & Records. 1 February 1991. p. 74. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
34. * Zimbabwe. Kimberley, C. Zimbabwe: singles chart book. Harare: C. Kimberley, 2000
35. "RPM 100 Hit Tracks of 1991". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
36. "RPM 100 Adult Contemporary Tracks of 1991". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
37. "Eurochart Hot 100 1991" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 8, no. 51–52. 21 December 1991. p. 21. Retrieved 17 January 2020 – via World Radio History.
38. "EHR Year-End Top 100" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 8, no. 51–52. 21 December 1991. p. 20. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
39. "Top 100 Singles–Jahrescharts 1991" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
40. "Jaarlijsten 1991" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
41. "Billboard Top 100 – 1991". Archived from the original on 7 July 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
42. "The Year in Music 1991: Top Album Rock Tracks" (PDF). Billboard. 21 December 1991. p. YE-41. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
43. "The Year in Music 1991: Top Modern Rock Tracks" (PDF). Billboard. 21 December 1991. p. YE-41. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
44. "The Cash Box Year-End Charts: 1991 – Top 50 Pop Singles". Cash Box. 28 December 1991. Archived from the original on 10 May 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2022.

• 1990 singles
• 1990 songs
• A&M Records singles
• RPM Top Singles number-one singles
• Song recordings produced by Hugh Padgham
• Songs written by Sting (musician)
• Sting (musician) songs