So Lonely

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This article is about the song by The Police. For other uses, see So Lonely (disambiguation).
"So Lonely"
File:Solonely.jpg
Single by The Police
from the album Outlandos d'Amour
B-side "No Time This Time"
Released 3 November 1978
Format Vinyl record (7")
Recorded 1978
Genre
Length 4:50 (album)
3:10 (single)
Label A&M – AMS 7402
Writer(s) Sting
Producer(s) The Police
Certification Silver (BPI)[2]
The Police singles chronology
"Can't Stand Losing You"
(1978)		 "So Lonely"
(1978)		 "Message in a Bottle"
(1979)
Outlandos d'Amour track listing
"Next to You"
(1)		 "So Lonely"
(2)		 "Roxanne"
(3)
Alternative cover
NL 7-inch cover
NL 7-inch cover

"So Lonely" is a song by English rock band The Police, released as the third and final single in November 1978 from their debut studio album Outlandos d'Amour (1978), and again in February 1980 as a re-release. The song uses a reggae style, and featured Sting on lead vocals.

"So Lonely" has since been covered by a variety of artists, such as Limbeck and The Militia Group.

Background

Sting has admitted that he used Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" as the basis for this song:

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"People thrashing out three chords didn't really interest us musically. Reggae was accepted in punk circles and musically more sophisticated, and we could play it, so we veered off in that direction. I mean let's be honest here, 'So Lonely' was unabashedly culled from 'No Woman No Cry' by Bob Marley. Same chorus. What we invented was this thing of going back and forth between thrash punk and reggae. That was the little niche we created for ourselves."

— Sting, Revolver 4/2000[3][4]

Sting recycled the lyrics in the song's verses from his earlier Last Exit song "Fool in Love". The lyrics themselves, about someone who is lonely after getting his heart broken, were thought to be "ironic" to large audiences.[4] Sting denied this claim, however, saying, "No, there's no irony whatsoever. From the outside it might look a bit strange, being surrounded by all this attention and yet experiencing the worst lonely feeling...but I do. And then suddenly the attention is withdrawn a half an hour later. You're so isolated..."[4]

"So Lonely" was released as the third and final single from Outlandos d'Amour in November 1978, following "Roxanne" and "Can't Stand Losing You." The single did not chart on the first occasion but reached No. 6 with its second release.[5] The other singles from Outlandos d'Amour followed a similar pattern of not charting very high in 1978, but doing very well on a re-release.

The video for the song depicts the band walking around the streets of Hong Kong and on the subway trains of Tokyo in 1980.[6] The band lip-syncs into walkie-talkies, while Stewart Copeland performs drum fills on random objects, such as buses and objects being sold.

The B-Side "No Time This Time" was originally a non-album track, but the same recording later appeared on their album Reggatta de Blanc to pad out the short running time.

Other appearances

Personnel

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  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "March 1980/ Archive Chart: 15 March 1980" UK Singles Chart. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
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  10. ↑ "Nederlandse Top 40 – The Police – So Lonely search results" (in Dutch) Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  11. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – The Police – So Lonely" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  12. ↑ "Lescharts.com – The Police – So Lonely" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
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