So Lonely

This article is about the song by the Police. For other uses, see So Lonely (disambiguation).

"So Lonely" is a song by British rock band the Police, released as the third and final single on 24 November 1978 from their debut studio album Outlandos d'Amour (1978). The single was re-released in the UK in February 1980, and reached No. 6 on the charts.^[4] The song uses a reggae style, and featured Sting on lead vocals.

"So Lonely"
Single by the Police
from the album Outlandos d'Amour
B-side	"No Time This Time"
Released	24 November 1978[1]
Recorded	1978
Genre	Reggae rock[2] New wave[3]
Length	4:50 (album) 3:10 (single/video)
Label	A&M – AMS 7402
Songwriter(s)	Sting
Producer(s)	The Police
The Police singles chronology
"Can't Stand Losing You" (1978) "So Lonely" (1978) "Message in a Bottle" (1979)
Alternative cover
Netherlands 7-inch cover
Music video
"So Lonely" on YouTube

Several artists have covered "So Lonely", including Limbeck and the Militia Group.

Background

Sting said he based the song on Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry":

"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 & the Wailers. 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^[5][6]

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.^[6] Sting denied this: "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 And then suddenly the attention is withdrawn a half an hour later.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..."^[6]

"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.^[7] 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.^[8] 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.

The song is known for a famous mondegreen where the title is often misheard as "Sue Lawley", a broadcaster famous as a BBC television newsreader at the time the song was released, and later for presenting Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 from 1988 to 2006. The misunderstanding was ranked as the most frequently misheard lyric in a 2020 survey of UK adults.^[9]

Other appearances

• The song has been covered many times, including by Limbeck on the album ¡Policia!: A Tribute to the Police (2005)^[10] put out by the Militia Group.

Personnel

• Sting – bass, lead and backing vocals, harmonica
• Andy Summers – guitars
• Stewart Copeland – drums

Track listing

7-inch: A&M / AMS 7402 (UK)

1. "So Lonely" – 3:10
2. "No Time This Time" – 3:30

Charts

Chart (1979–1980) Peak position Australia (Kent Music Report)[11] 99 Ireland (IRMA)[12] 7 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[13] 31 Netherlands (Single Top 100)[14] 26 UK Singles (OCC)[7] 6

Chart (2013) Peak position France (SNEP)[15] 133

References

1. "Music Week" (PDF). p. 62.
2. Prato, Greg. "The Police – Outlandos d'Amour". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
3. Sullivan, Jim (25 August 2018). "10 More Songs That Defined New Wave Music". Best Classic Bands.
4. "Police singles".
5. Garbarini, Vic (Spring 2000). "I think if we came back..." Revolver. Rogier van der Gugten. Archived from the original on 30 August 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
6. "'So Lonely' / 'No Time This Time'". sting.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
7. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
8. "The Police – So Lonely". 21 April 2008. Archived from the original on 18 June 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2014 – via YouTube.
9. Wilson, Fraser N. (17 August 2020). "What chanters in East Kilbride are guilty of this? A brilliant top 10 of wrongly sung lyrics". Daily Record. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
10. Apar, Corey. "¡Policia!: A Tribute to the Police – Overview". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
11. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 235. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
12. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – So Lonely". Irish Singles Chart.
13. "Nederlandse Top 40 – The Police – So Lonely" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
14. "The Police – So Lonely" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
15. "The Police – So Lonely" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 21 January 2014.