Sting recorded the hit single "Fortress Around Your Heart" in 1985. It was released from his debut solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, after the breakup of the Police.
Sting wrote the song in a recording studio in Barbados while experimenting with guitar chords that he felt sounded medieval. Its lyrics use sieges, walls, trenches, mines, and battlements as metaphors for emotional distance in a damaged relationship. The narrator recognizes that the defenses built to protect someone have also imprisoned them and asks to rebuild the connection.
The single was one of Sting's major early solo successes. In the United States, it reached the top of the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart and peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, it reached No. 49.
Listeners sometimes associate the song with the Police because of Sting's voice and its polished rock arrangement. However, it is a solo Sting recording, performed with musicians including keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, drummer Omar Hakim, bassist Darryl Jones, and saxophonist Branford Marsalis.