Englishman in New York (4:23)

“Englishman in New York” is a song by Sting, from his 1987 album …Nothing Like the Sun. The “Englishman” in question is the famous eccentric Quentin Crisp. Sting wrote the song not long after Crisp moved from London to an apartment in New York’s Bowery. Crisp had remarked jokingly to the musician “…that he looked forward to receiving his naturalization papers so that he could commit a crime and not be deported.”

The song was released as a single in 1988, but only reached #51 on the UK Singles Chart.[1] In the US, “Englishman in New York” peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April 1988.[2] The song reached #32 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart that same month.[3] Branford Marsalis played saxophone on the track. In 1990, just prior to the release of his third studio album The Soul Cages, Sting’s record label licensed Dutch DJ and producer Ben Liebrand to remix “Englishman in New York” and subsequently release it as a single. The remix played around with the introduction and some of the instrumentation, but the essence of the song remained the same. The new version was commercially successful, reaching number 15 in the UK charts in mid-1990.[4]

The video was directed by David L. Fincher, and featured scenes of Sting and his band in New York, as well as the elusive Crisp.