WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THAT OLD SONG

The rampaging scourge of late 80s/early 90s pop was the "special remix" version, which took a previously recorded song from a group's canon and decked it out in shiny new togs in order to help flog a useless best-of comp.

The nadir of this particular genre was likely plumbed when the briefly reunited Police let Sting spray his smooth-jazz jizz du jour all over Don't Stand So Close To Me. Yuck.

The Pogues, however, actually got it right.

They recognized A Rainy Night in Soho for the diamond in the rough that it was, and they recut it to fix the flaws.

The most obvious of these flaws is the fact the original dulls the impact of this verse:

"Now the song is nearly over
We may never find out what it means
Still there's a light I hold before me
You're the measure of my dreams
The measure of my dreams"

For some odd reason, the original does not peak with this, but rather goes into the bridge following this verse and then comes back around and repeats the verse.

But the remix realizes that the song is building to this moment thematically and narratively, and puts it in its rightful place.

And where the original seemed a bit embarassed by its sentimentality, the remix embraces its inner schmaltz and lets us have a nice cry...