"Don't Stand So Close to Me" is a hit song by the British rock band the Police, released in September 1980 as the lead single from their third studio album Zenyatta Mondatta.

It deals with the mixed feelings of lust, fear and guilt that a school teacher has for a student and the fallout when the inappropriate relationship is discovered by other adults.

He referred to the song's story progression as "the teacher, the open page, the virgin, the rape in the car, getting the sack".

[7] In 1993, however, he said of the song's inspiration, "You have to remember we were blond bombshells at the time and most of our fans were young girls, so I started roleplaying a bit.

[full citation needed] "Don't Stand So Close to Me" appeared on the Police album Zenyatta Mondatta (A&M), and became a No.

[citation needed] The B-side, "Friends", was written by Andy Summers and is inspired by Stranger in a Strange Land, a science fiction novel by Robert A.

The song reused the melody from "Don't Stand So Close to Me" in the counterpoint line "I want my MTV."

The track features a guitar synthesizer in the middle of the song, used by guitarist Andy Summers.

Summers said, "After Sting had put the vocals on 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' we looked for something to lift the middle of the song.

1 in its first week of release on 27 September 1980,[40] confirming their status as one of the UK's leading contemporary groups.

"Don't Stand So Close To Me" spent a total of 8 weeks inside the UK top 40, dropping out on 22 November.

"Don't Stand So Close To Me" broke into the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 on 21 February 1981 at No. 39.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, "Don't Stand So Close To Me" took on a very different meaning in the context of COVID-19, as people worldwide practiced social distancing.

A slight lyric change is found in the line "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov" (the word 'famous' was added).

A new music video was produced for the reworked song by Godley and Creme, notable for its early use of animated computer graphics.

It was approximately 6 seconds shorter, with a longer atmospheric break before the first lyric, but part of the chorus edited out towards the end.

The group's engineer found the Synclavier's programming interface difficult; it ended up taking him two days to complete the task.

It was performed by the character Will Schuester (played by Matthew Morrison) as a musical mashup with "Young Girl" by Gary Puckett & the Union Gap.