Sumner's Tales: Sting talks...

"'We'll Be Together' is funny because it was written as a beer commercial for a Japanese company called Kirin. I like the idea of music being a craft, I'm not precious about it. They wanted a song and the only prerequisite was the word "together". I wrote the song in 3mins 49sec, which is exactly the length of the song. The Japanese loved it, and then the record company loved it too. "This is exactly what we need." "But I didn't invest anything in this song. I just put it together." They said: "No! It's a hit!" And it was. It's probably the only straight rock track on the collection ('Fields Of Gold'). Kirin is OK as a canned beer. It's not as good as Newcastle Exhibition. But then, what is"
Independent On Sunday, 11/94

"That was our favorite video. That was based on a [1949 Jean] Cocteau film, 'Orpheus' [derived from the Greek myth]; you didn't have to know that, but I just thought I'd throw that in. It's a very surreal film set in modern times, after the war. This person playing Orpheus goes through a door and suddenly he's in the Underworld and has to rescue Eurydice. There's good woman and bad woman in it, but we didn't steal much of the film, just the opening scene."
Billboard, 9/99

'We'll Be Together' appears on Sting's 1987 album, 'Nothing Like The Sun'. It had the honour of being Sting's first CD single in the UK where it reached the #41 spot - and for added collectibility it was also a 3" CD instead of the standard 5" - but the single fared much better in the US where it reached the #7 spot, spending 12 weeks on the chart there. A fallacy has developed that Sting doesn't care for this song. That is obviously wrong, the song was played throughout the 1987 tour and was a regular in the set list throughout the 'Brand New Day' tour. Originally the song was written for a commercial for a Japanese beer called Kirin, and the single was accompanied by an excellent video which also featured Trudie. A variety of remixes of the song exist 'Original', 'Instrumental', 'Extended'. Interestingly, the track was originally recorded with Eric Clapton on guitar but this version of the song features Brian Loren on guitar. When the track was included on 1994's 'Fields of Gold' hits compilation, Sting decided to include the version featuring Clapton.