I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)

"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)"
Single by The Proclaimers
from the album Sunshine on Leith
Released	August 1988 (UK) June 1993 (US) 2000 (re-release)
Format	7" 12" CD single
Recorded	1988, Chipping Norton Recording Studios, Oxfordshire[1]
Genre	Celtic rock folk rock college rock alternative rock
Length	3:37
Label	Chrysalis
Songwriter(s)	Charlie Reid Craig Reid
Producer(s)	Pete Wingfield
The Proclaimers singles chronology
"Make My Heart Fly" (1987) "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" (1988) "Sunshine on Leith" (1988)

"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 1990.^[2]

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.^[3] 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".

Background

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."^[4] Reid has said that the band's earnings from the song are about five times the rest of their catalogue combined.^[2]

Track listing

All tracks written and composed by Charlie and Craig Reid, except where noted.

• 7" single
  1. "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" – 3:37
  2. "Better Days" – 3:14
• 12" single
  1. "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" – 3:37
  2. "Better Days" – 3:14
  3. "Teardrops" – 2:33
• CD single
  1. "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" – 3:37
  2. "Better Days" – 3:14
  3. "Teardrops" – 2:33
  4. "I Can't Be Myself" (Merle Haggard) – 2:30

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts Chart (1988–1990) Peak position Australia (ARIA)[5] 1 Iceland (Tonlist)[6] 1 Ireland (IRMA)[7] 14 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[8] 1 UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[9] 11 Chart (1993) Peak position Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[10] 5 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[11] 42 Canada (RPM)[12] 4 Germany (Official German Charts)[13] 40 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[14] 36 US Billboard Hot 100[15] 3

Year-end charts Chart (1989) Position Australia (ARIA)[16] 3 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[17] 6 Chart (1993) Position Canada Top Singles (RPM)[18] 47 Certifications Region Certification Certified units/Sales United Kingdom (BPI)[19] Gold 400,000 United States (RIAA)[20] Gold 800,000[21] sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

Comic Relief version

In 2007, the Proclaimers re-recorded the song with Peter Kay and Matt Lucas as their characters Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights and Andy Pipkin from Little Britain respectively. There is a slight change in the title of the song, with the parentheses placed around "I'm Gonna Be" rather than "500 Miles". The lyrics also include a change, with the words "roll 500 miles" replacing "walk 500 miles", because the characters Brian Potter and Andy Pipkin are both in wheelchairs. "(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles" was released as a charity single for Comic Relief immediately following its performance on the Comic Relief 2007: The Big One television show on BBC1 on 16 March 2007.^[22] It reached number 3 on the official UK Singles Chart on download sales alone, and one week later reached number 1, where it remained for three weeks. It sold 126,000 copies in its first week, making it the biggest selling number one of the year up to that point.^[23] Its sales were double that of the official Comic Relief single by Girls Aloud vs. Sugababes, and their cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way". The song ended 2007 as the year's 8th biggest-selling single in the UK.^[24] The song was popular in Ireland as well, and peaked at #7 in Irish Singles Chart.

Kay also directed a video clip of the song featuring himself as Brian Potter, Lucas as Andy, David Walliams as Lou, The Proclaimers and an audience of celebrity guests, comprising Johnny Ball, David Beckham, David Bellamy, Dusty Bin, Tony Blackburn, Stan Boardman, Basil Brush, Bob the Builder, Bucks Fizz, Cannon and Ball, Bob Carolgees & Spit the Dog, Jasper Carrott, Keith Chegwin, Jimmy Cricket, Tess Daly, Bobby Davro (referred to in the lyrics), Carol Decker, Sally Dynevor, Lesley Garrett, Andy Gray, Clare Grogan, Paul Henry, Frazer Hines, Siobhan Redmond (credited as "Her off Holby City"), Elton John, The Krankies, Burt Kwouk, Bonnie Langford, Eddie Large, Michael Le Vell, Limahl, Kenny Lynch, Des Lynam, Timmy Mallett, Jennie McAlpine, Bill Oddie, Paul O'Grady, Postman Pat, Wendi Peters, Robert Powell, Rod, Jane and Freddy, Rupert the Bear, Showaddywaddy, Status Quo, Frank Sidebottom, Sonia, Dennis Taylor, David Tennant, Willie Thorne, Kate Thornton, Dave Lee Travis, Martin Tyler, Roy Walker, Louis Walsh, Pete Waterman, Elton Welsby, June Whitfield, Gary Wilmot and Bob Wilson. Osama bin Laden (then still a fugitive terrorist), Lord Lucan (missing since 1974) and Shergar (a kidnapped race horse) are also falsely credited as appearing in the video.

Popular culture

• Originally recorded and released in 1988, the song was first a success only in countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, later in 1993, it was included as one of the main themes of the 1993 American romantic comedy film Benny & Joon starring Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson; subsequently, due to its exposure during the film, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" reached the top 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart during the summer of that year.^[29][3]
• The song is often played in the warm up before the Scotland football team matches when playing at home at Hampden Park in Glasgow, and again when the team scores. The same is true for the Scottish Rugby team at Murrayfield Stadium although since 2013 a mashup version of the song mixed with David Guetta's "Titanium" and Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning"^[30] has been used as well.

• The song is also often played at Easter Road before Scottish Premiership side Hibernian's home matches.

• Scottish darts player Robert Thornton uses the song as his walk-on song.^[31]
• As part of what has become a now legendary performance, Phish covered this song at their Madison Square Garden concert in the middle of a fantastic narration that Trey Anastasio told in the middle of the song Harpua on 30 Dec 1997. Tom Marshall sang the vocals.^[32]
• In 2007, Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song, with minor lyric changes, for their video game Alvin and the Chipmunks.
• At the end of the fourth series of the new Doctor Who, a video of the cast and crew of the show (as well as The Proclaimers themselves) singing and dancing along to the song was released, as a farewell to David Tennant, Russell T Davies, and other key players in the show's development; hailing the shift into the Steven Moffat era of the show.

The song was also very popular in Spain in the late 1990s thanks to TV advertisements. It was a reference song for the ads of Retevisión, one of the first private telecommunications companies in Spain.^[33]

The song is also featured on the How I Met Your Mother episode "Arrivederci, Fiero", in which it is revealed that the character Marshall has had a cassette tape with the song on it stuck in his car for years. Commentary on the song's unlimited replay value follows. It remained a running gag for the rest of the series.

This song is also featured on the Grey's Anatomy episode in season 9 "Readiness is All" when Matthew proposes to April in a surprise flash-mob to this song.

At the closing ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, after the Commonwealth Games Federation flag was handed over to Lord Smith of Kelvin, representative of the next Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow, 350 performers from Scotland perform in a 10-minute segment displaying Scottish culture. The performance ended with the inflatable structure morphing into the Loch Ness Monster and the cast then exited the stadium to the tune of I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles).^[34]

The song is featured in the movies Bachelorette, Identity Thief, Benny & Joon, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Burke and Hare, Sunshine on Leith, and Peter Rabbit. It is also featured in the movie The Angels' Share directed by Ken Loach, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

A cover of the song was recorded by Down by Law on their album Punkrockacademyfightsong.

The song is sung in the television series The Cafe by Ralf Little and cast to close out the final episode of season one, "Deal or No Deal".

The song is also sung in the 2014 Australian film 500 Miles by the lead actor Pete Valley to the lead actress Ebony Nave in a quite iconic scene that is set in a small country town pub.

In 2014, Imagine Dragons performed a live cover of the song at the T in the Park music festival in Scotland. A YouTube video of the performance has more than 3.8 million views as of June 2017.^[35]

In 2015, Budweiser's Super Bowl ad features a cover version of this song by Sleeping at Last. In the same year it also laid the basis for song "Magna Carta 800 Years", which was a tribute to Magna Carta in the rebooted version of Horrible Histories.

This song appears in a commercial for Lunchables as a promotion for their new product, "kabobbles".

The song appeared in the fourth episode of Hindsight.

The song appears in commercials for the 2015 Volkswagen Golf and 2017 Ford Edge.

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
• Video on YouTube