So Lonely
| "So Lonely" | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||
| Single by The Police | ||||||||||
| from the album Outlandos d'Amour | ||||||||||
| B-side | "No Time This Time" | |||||||||
| Released |
November 1978 February 1980 (re-release) | |||||||||
| Format | Vinyl record (7") | |||||||||
| Recorded | 1978 | |||||||||
| Genre | Reggae rock,[1] new wave | |||||||||
| Length |
3:10 (7" single edit) 4:52 (Full-length album version) | |||||||||
| Label | A&M – AMS 7402 | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Sting | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Stewart Copeland, Sting, Andy Summers | |||||||||
| Certification | Silver (BPI)[2] | |||||||||
| The Police singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"So Lonely" is a song by The Police, appearing on the 1978 studio album Outlandos d'Amour and released as a single in November 1978 and again in February 1980 as a re-release. The single didn't chart on the first occasion but reached number 6 with its second release.[3] The other singles from Outlandos d'Amour, "Roxanne" and "Can't Stand Losing You", followed a similar pattern of not charting very high in 1978, but doing very well on a re-release.
Sting has admitted that he used Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" as the basis for this song:
"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 recycled the lyrics in the song's verses from his earlier Last Exit song "Fool in Love".
The video for the song depicts the band walking around the streets of Hong Kong and on the subway trains of Tokyo in 1980.[5]
The song has been covered many times, including a version by Limbeck on the album ¡Policia!: A Tribute to the Police (2005)[6] put out by The Militia Group.
The song is also available for play in music video game Guitar Hero 5 and as downloadable content for Rock Band 3.
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.
Personnel
- Sting – bass, lead vocals, backing vocals, harmonica
- Andy Summers – guitars
- Stewart Copeland – drums
