The song was released in 1988 as the third single from the album, but only reached #51 on the UK Singles Chart. In the US, "Englishman in New York" peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April 1988. The song reached #32 on the BillboardMainstream Rock chart that same month. However, "Englishman in New York" was a hit in 1988 in several European countries, reaching the Top 40 (and sometimes the Top 20) in France, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, etc.
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 released 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.