The Police's 1978 hit Roxanne is still considered one of the greatest songs of all time.

But the band's lead singer and writer of the rock classic, Sting, was forced to endure a painful butchering of his song at the hands of 2GB host Ben Fordham on Thursday.

'That's a useful message, so thank you,' the 70-year-old singer responded after being played the off-key tune, in which Fordham replaced the word 'Roxanne' with 'vaccine'.