So Lonely

"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 features Sting on lead vocals.

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

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 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 And then suddenly the attention is withdrawn a half an hour later.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]

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.^[7]

"So Lonely" se lanzó como el tercer y último sencillo de Outlandos d'Amour en noviembre de 1978, después de " Roxanne " y " Can't Stand Losing You ". El sencillo no entró en las listas la primera vez, pero alcanzó el número 6 con su segundo lanzamiento. ^{[ 8 ]} Record Business había informado en febrero de 1980 que el sello discográfico de la banda, A&M , había animado a las tiendas de discos en el Reino Unido a comprar copias adicionales del sencillo tras su ascenso inicial en las listas. ^{[ 9 ]} Los otros sencillos de Outlandos d'Amour siguieron un patrón similar de no alcanzar posiciones muy altas en las listas en 1978, pero tener mucho éxito en una reedición.

El video de la canción muestra a la banda caminando por las calles de Hong Kong y en los trenes del metro de Tokio en 1980. ^{[ 10 ]} La banda hace playback en walkie-talkies , mientras Stewart Copeland realiza redobles de batería en objetos aleatorios, como autobuses y objetos que se venden.

La cara B, "No Time This Time", originalmente no formaba parte del álbum, pero la misma grabación apareció posteriormente en su álbum Reggatta de Blanc para completar su corta duración.

Vinilo de 7 pulgadas: A&M / AMS 7402 (Reino Unido)

1. "Tan sola" – 3:10
2. "Esta vez no hay tiempo" – 3:30

• Sting – voz, bajo
• Andy Summers – guitarras
• Stewart Copeland – batería

La canción ha sido versionada muchas veces, incluyendo por Limbeck en el álbum ¡Policia!: A Tribute to the Police (2005). ^{[ 19 ]}