Sumner's Tales: Sting talks...

"The song is about a father whose wife has left him for another guy and taken their two children. It starts off cynically, in the first two verses, implying that the guy can't really be happy. But after gazing at the stars one night he has a revelation about all life being connected and he realises that in a sense, he's supported by the universe. Now he can sing the song and mean it - he really is so happy he can't stop crying. So it's about a journey through pain to a new level of understanding and acceptance."
'Mercury Falling' Promotional Interview Disc, '96

"I was No. 2 on the Billboard country chart with 'I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying' off my 'Mercury Falling' album. Me doing a country song is certainly an irony, being an English boy. But it was covered in Nashville [by Toby Keith] and was a big thrill because it authenticated what I was half-attempting, you know"
Billboard, 9/99

"I find that quite moving. I know I wrote it, but I listen to it and actually find it quite moving, because it makes a journey. I don't know. Maybe it's a song for people who have been divorced, you know People who haven't been divorced, well, maybe they won't understand it. But I'm quite proud of that song. I think that's my favourite song on the record, actually.''
The Baltimore Sun, 3/96

"The song started as a rock song, but the lyrics just kept screaming out to be a country song. So it ended up with two notes to the bar in the bass and evolved into a country-rock shuffle The guy's singing the song cynically at first, then while gazing up at the stars he has this revelation about all life being connected, that he's supported by the universe. He continues to sing the song, but now he means it. His pain is gone. As a young man I was quite angry and bitter. I felt shut out of the world. So I can relate to younger bands making angry music with a lot of attitude, but my music has finally gone past that to the next stage. Not acceptance, but beginning to understand the cycles of life rather than getting caught in that loop of anger-of hurt, revenge, hurt, revenge. Like the guy in the song says, "Everybody has to leave the darkness sometime."
Guitar World, 7/96

'I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying' appears on the 1996 album, 'Mercury Falling'. An out and out country tune (the song was later covered by Toby Keith and made the Billboard Country Chart) the song was especially notable on the subsequent tour for Sting's practice of allowing audience members to get on stage to sing along during the performance. The other notable thing about the song was the video - a David Lynch-esque affair featuring spaceships, line dancing aliens, flying horses and jeeps. Oh, and Sting wearing a silly mohawk hair piece...