Back in 1981 this was pretty much the slickest thing out there.

 Xeric wrote: 
Comments like this get my salivary glands juiced! So what you're saying is, of all the bands to make it to the big time, The Police and AC/DC were the worst. For you to accept this you would have had to have been exposed to the tiniest of musical samplings.
Here's a list of "Big Time" (your words) musical acts that I think are WORSE then your choices.  In no particular order:

Whitney Houston
Phil Collins solo
Later Genesis
Lionel Richie (but not the Commodores)
REO Speedwagon
Garth Brooks
Journey
New Kids On the Block
Bon Jovi
Huey Lewis & the News
Chicago (Chicago 17)
Def Leppard

And this list is based on the best selling albums of the 1980s only.

Here's my take on The Police:

Quite often bands hit it big because they land on a sound through their own evolution, a sound that finds them aligned with popular tastes at that particular moment in history. The Police are such a band. Experimental enough to satisfy purists but at the time less raw then punk. Appealing to both genders with the convergence of video and audio media. Sting became a bona fide sex symbol, and the Hugh Padgham produced, easy listening masterpiece, "Synchronicity," exploded onto television sets and AM/FM radios everywhere.

For those of us who saw them in a small club or cozy theater setting, the Police were as tight and high-energy an outfit as any power trio out there. Although lyrically clunky, owing to Sting's famed "gay wadness," they often transcended this high-minded posing with songs that felt original and fresh in 1980. With Sting's thinly veiled jazz leanings, Copeland's classical underpinnings, and Summers' weird tonal proclivity, the Police were unlike any other band of their era.

Besides the much publicized animosity between the mates, they're break-up always seemed like a forgone conclusion to me. The pop bloat that found it's way into songs like "Every breath you take" became like a platinum-selling cancer, threatening all future creativity. To me, the break-up was only further evidence that these guys were for real.