Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, Jon McMillan breaks ‘em down for you. Why Video Hangover? Because when you watch as many videos as we do, you’re going to feel it afterwards.
“I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying”
Sting, 1996
This video has a little bit of everything. And by everything I mean country music, a spaceship, and Sting with a Mohawk.
We are spirits … in the new Larry the Cable Guy movie
In Sting’s dystopian nightmare, pickup trucks fly, aliens line-dance with old ladies, and cows are slaughtered by walking through a “hamburger screen.” In my dystopian nightmare, I watch music videos in which Sting has a Mohawk and sings really crappy country music while riding a metallic horse.
“Take me to pleasure town.”
“Oh, we’re going!”
The cringe-inducing lyrics (“joint custody/a trial separation”), the Mad Max-meets-Neil Young wardrobe, the flying cowboy spaceship — if you can think of a more misguided genre experiment, I’d like to hear it. The present-day equivalent of Sting making this video a mere 12 years after Synchronicity would look something like this: in 2013, a bald Rivers Cuomo writes a reggaeton song about particle physics, then releases a video in which he makes love to a couch made entirely of chocolate.
Are you there, God? It’s me, Sting.
At the 2:00 mark, a Christ-like Sting is elevated to a cosmic plane of existence. He offers himself up to the universe, and the universe, in what can only be described as a deeply spiritual exchange, lends him a shirt it bought for $3 at a thrift store in Williamsburg and sends his sorry ass back down to earth.
Got a candidate for Video Hangover? Email tips at stereogum dot com.
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sting’s really good at burying his flops- i had no idea this existed.
I actually remember this video. Mainly because I like this song. A lot.
So there.
The best part is that he went on to re-record it as duet with Toby Keith.
it’s good song about divorce. i know a local band that does a really nice acoustic version of it.
the video is just beyond crap.
can i think of a more misguided genre experiment? yes! “glam-folk, a mix of glam rock and folk music”…. (for those of you who don’t know, im referencing the show ‘the mighty boosh’.)
i was just waiting for a chance to say that.
Re: The Rivers Cuomo comment – I’d rather listen to this song 12 years after “Synchronicity” than “Beverly Hills” 12 years after “The Sweater Song”. I’ve always liked this song. It’s better than most of the Sting solo schlock. “Beverly Hills”, as an ironic genre experiment, cheap pop song, whatever you want to call it, is just a terrible, terrible song.
I didn’t know you could still get $3 shirts in Williamsburg.
Great song. In fact maybe my favorite Sting solo song. The video is painful to watch though.
The video is troublesomely awful, but I do like the song.
I heard it on 700 AM, America’s Trucking Network, based in Cincinnati.