Songoftheday 11/28/18 - If I get drunk, well I know I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you...
from the albums Sunshine On Leith (1988) and Benny & Joon (Original Soundtrack) (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16
Today's song of the day comes from the Proclaimers, who are fronted by Scottish twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid. Hailing from the Edinburgh suburb of Leith, the pair started the band in the early 1980s, but didn't get their break until the later half of the decade. After touring with British rockers (and pre-Fatboy Slim gig) the Housemartins, they released their debut album, This Is The Story, in 1987. The breakthrough single, "Letter From America", was a topical look at the plight of the underprivileged in their country who were forced out of their homes by landowners and left the country for the West. Despite the sad story, their earnest and bright performance chimed with the British Isles, climbing to #3 in the UK and #2 in Ireland. The following year, the Proclaimers put out their sophomore effort, Sunshine On Leith, of course naming it for the town of their birth. The lead single from the set was a rock anthem with a Celtic march, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", written by the Reids and produced by Pete Wingfield (who had his own success in the 70s with "Eighteen With A Bullet"). Released in 1989, the song climbed to #11 on the UK singles chart, while going all the way to #1 in Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. It even got respectable airplay on American rock radio, going to #21 on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock chart. They followed with the title track "Sunshine On Leith", which stopped frustratingly one notch short of the British top-40 at #41. Their next release, the rollicking "I'm On My Way", which only got to #43 in the UK but Down Under hit #3 in Australia and #5 in New Zealand. A final single, "Then I Met You", didn't even make the chart in Britain, but was a minor hit in Australia at #64. In 1990, the band released an EP (extended play record) named for their cover of Roger Miller's country classic "King Of The Road", and it scored the brothers a second top ten hit in the UK at #9.
It could have been the story for the pair, as was the case with a ton of acts from that era that had moderate success, but in 1993, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" was commissioned for the Johnny Depp/Mary Sue Masterson movie Benny & Joon. The only non-score vocal selection on the soundtrack, the film's success gave a whole new audience to the song in the States, and it returned to rock radio as well...
"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" became the Proclaimers first and only pop hit in America, reaching the top ten in August of 1993. On its second try, the song climbed to #8 on Billboard's Modern Rock radio chart, while crossing over to their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list at #25. Internationally, the re-release of "I'm Gonna Be" peaked at #4 in Canada and #5 in Austria, and made the top-40 in Switzerland (#36) and Germany (#40).
Despite the massive success of the single, and the immediate recognizable voices of the pair, the Proclaimers' momentum didn't carry, though they have been respectably recording hits since then. Their next studio album, Hit The Highway, made the top ten in Britain at #8, and spun off two top-40 hits, but the best of them, "Let's Get Married", stopped at #21 in 1994. There was a seven-year break before their next set, Persevere, but that only made it to #64 with no singles making the charts. However, the lingering success of "I'm Gonna Be" still kept the band in the green, with a best of reaching the albums top-40 in the UK.
In 2007, the Reids revisited "I'm Gonna Be" for the charity Comic Relief, bringing on British TV stars Matt Lucas (from Little Britain) and Peter Kay (from Phoenix Nights). The new version of the song (and the well-known cause) was a huge success, carrying the version to #1 on the British singles chart and to #7 in Ireland. Capitalizing on that, the band released another new album, Life With You. The album got to #13 in the UK, but the title track only scaled to #58 on the singles chart. Through the new millenium, the group has released seven moderately successful album, most recently this past August with Angry Cyclist, which hit #17 on the British albums chart. Also, Charles and Craig were very active and visible in the Scottish Independence election of 2014, with an album track "Cap In Hand", which addressed the subject way back on Sunshine In Leith, climbing to #62 in Britain.
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Here's the band appearing on the Letterman show back on its original release in 1989. (It's cool to see them years before this was so big.)
At the multi-city Live 8 charity concerts in 2005, the brothers took it home in Edinburgh and the reaction was deafening...
Two years later, the song topped the British chart with the help of Comic Relief...
Here's a cute clip of just the brothers and a guitar in 2012...
In 2014, American alternative rock kings Imagine Dragons covered the song in their T in the Park set in Scotland. (This one makes me deliriously happy)
And finally, The Proclaimers live in concert in Philadelphia in 2016...
Up tomorrow: A private dancer isn't into confrontation.
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