Proclaimers

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The Proclaimers are a Scottish band composed of twin brothers Charlie and Craig Reid (born 5 March 1962). They are best known for the songs "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", "Sunshine on Leith", "I'm On My Way" and "Letter from America", and their singing style with a Scottish accent. The band tours extensively throughout the world. They have released ten studio albums since 1987 as well as three compilation albums and a DVD.

Craig Reid and Charlie Reid were born in Leith on 5 March 1962, and grew up in Edinburgh, Cornwall and Auchtermuchty. When they lived in Auchtermuchty they attended Bell Baxter High School. After several punk rock bands at school they formed the Proclaimers in 1983.

The pair came to public attention when an Inverness-based fan sent their demo to the English band the Housemartins, who were impressed enough to invite the Proclaimers on their 1986 United Kingdom tour. The exposure of the tour won them a January 1987 appearance on the British pop music television programme The Tube on Channel Four;  "Letter from America" peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart,  while the album This Is the Story went gold.

The follow-up album Sunshine on Leith featured the singles "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", which went to number one in Australia  and New Zealand,  and "I'm On My Way".  They had a hit with their EP King of the Road, which reached number nine in the UK in 1990.  "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" belatedly peaked at number three in the US in 1993,  after appearing in the movie Benny & Joon. After seven low-profile years, they released their comeback album Persevere in 2001.

In March 2007 they recorded a new version of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" with television comedy characters Andy Pipkin (played by Matt Lucas) and Brian Potter (Peter Kay) for the Comic Relief charity. A long list of celebrities were featured in the music video for this new version, including David Bellamy, Rod, Jane and Freddy, Paul O'Grady, David Tennant, Frank Sidebottom and many more. This new version of the song reached number one in the UK Singles Chart.

A stage musical featuring their songs, Sunshine on Leith, was created in 2007 for Dundee Rep and adapted as a feature film in 2013 bearing the same name.

The band was one of the B-52s' touring partners on their Funplex tour in Australia and New Zealand in November 2009, alongside Mental as Anything.

They featured in VH1's 100 greatest one hit wonders, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" having been their only US hit single.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ4Ib-7fJqY

"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 it has since become their most popular song worldwide, initially becoming a number 1 hit in Iceland, before reaching number 1 in both Australia and New Zealand in early 1989.

In 1993, following its appearance in the American film Benny & Joon, the song was released in North America and many other countries around the world, it reached the top five on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100 charts.[2] 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, outperforming their original UK singles performance.

"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" has become a live staple at the Proclaimers' concerts. The duo played it at Edinburgh 50,000 – The Final Push at Murrayfield Stadium on 6 July 2005, the final concert of Live 8, to symbolise the conclusion of "The Long Walk to Justice".

The song was mainly written by Craig Reid in mid-1987 while waiting to travel to a Proclaimers concert in Aberdeen. Reid recalled, "I can remember sitting at the piano 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.