This Day in Music History (10/02): The Police/Reggatta de Blanc/Ghost in the Machine

Reggatta de Blanc is the 2nd studio album by English rock band The Police, released on this day in 1979. It was their first album to reach #1 on the UK Album Charts (#25 in the US). It was their second album to bear a foreign language title after the band's 1978 debut album Outlandos d'Amour. Reggatta de Blanc proved both more popular and successful than its predecessor though. In 2012, the album was ranked #372 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

It features the band's first two UK #1 hits: "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon". The title track earned the band their first Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1980.

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Also released by The Police on this day, but in 1981, is their 4th studio album Ghost in the Machine. The album reached #1 on the UK Albums Chart. In the US it reached #2 on the Billboard 200, and went multi-platinum. It was listed #322 on Rolling Stone 's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

"Invisible Sun," released as the first single (in the UK only) was a large success, making it to #2, even though the video was banned by the BBC for including footage of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Later, "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" made it to #3 in the US and #1 in Britain, and my favorite "Spirits in the Material World" made it to #11 in the US and #12 in the UK.

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