Tags
#1 single, 1980s, 1990s, Benny & Joon, Craig Reid, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), Music, One Hit Wonder, Scottish, Sunshine on Leith, The Proclaimers
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) (Chrysalis, 1988/1993)
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) is a song written and performed by Scottish duo The Proclaimers, and first released as the lead single from their 1988 album Sunshine on Leith. The song reached number 11 in the UK Singles Chart on its initial release and has since become their most popular song worldwide. It was a number 1 hit in Iceland, then number 1 in Australia and New Zealand in early 1990. In 1993, it was included on the soundtrack for the film Benny & Joon. I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) was released in North America and many other countries around the world. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in August 1993, as well as number 8 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart and number 25 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart; it also reached number 4 in Canada. In 2007, the Proclaimers re-recorded the song with English comedians Peter Kay and Matt Lucas for the UK’s Comic Relief charity telethon, scoring a number one hit in the UK and outperforming their original UK chart run.
The song was mainly written by Craig Reid in August 1987 while waiting to travel to a Hibernian Football Club match in Aberdeen. Reid recalled, “I can remember sitting at the piano wondering how many steps it would be to the new classroom (I originally thought 83) and the chords just came to me. I reckon I wrote the whole thing in 45 minutes. I knew that it was a good song, maybe even a single, but I had no idea how popular it would become.” Reid has said that the band’s earnings from the song are about five times the rest of their catalogue combined.