SHAKESPEARE

Alternative title

Inside the Songs of Sacred Love

Synopsis

The last track on SACRED LOVE, Sting’s ninth album, ‘Like a beautiful smile’ is a lyrical setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 ('Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’). In the DVD commentary, Sting describes how "the song started off as a piece of retro 70’s jazz in 7/8 time with just the lyric ‘Like a beautiful smile fills up the sky’, and that he was sitting in his library trying to think of some lyrics and a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets caught his eye. He opened it at random to the page containing Sonnet 18, started to sing the words to the melody and found that despite the odd time meter, the bard’s words scanned so he simply placed his chorus in the middle" (see release details at http://www.sting.com/discog/?v=v).

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Audio; Video

Year of release

2003

Duration

4:45

Credits

Writer

Sting; William Shakespeare

Cast

Dominic Miller
Sting

Additional Details

Production type

Sound Recordings(Commercial)

Keywords

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); sonnets; musical adaptations

Notes

Notes

Also available as part of the DVD release ' Sting - Inside - The Songs of Sacred Love’ (2003).

History

The album SACRED HEART was originally released on September 9, 2003.

Textual information

Lyrics available at http://www.sting.com/discog/?v=so&a=2&id=177 (accessed 25 March 2008)

Production Company

Name

Polydor Group

Distributor (Sale)

Name

Retail outlets