As the Proclaimers, identical twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid rose to global success in the late ’80s, playing a charismatic amalgam of rock, folk, soul, and country sung in close brotherly harmony and proudly bearing their thick Scottish accents. Cutting their teeth first as an acoustic duo, they added a band for 1988’s Sunshine on Leith, and landed a worldwide hit with the wildly catchy “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” an enduring song that charted again five years later in the U.S. thanks to its inclusion on the soundtrack to the movie Benny & Joon. Over the next few decades, the Reids maintained consistent chart success with career highlights like 1994’s Hit the Highway, 2007’s Life with You, and 2018’s Angry Cyclist, becoming a well-established live act around the world with a reputation for fiery, soulful performances. Their music has been featured in numerous films including Shrek, The Commitments, Bottle Rocket, Dumb and Dumber, and Pitch Perfect as well as inspiring a 2007 stage musical called Sunshine on Leith, based on their songs. Returning to work in 2022, the Proclaimers delivered the punchy and political Dentures Out.
Craig and Charlie Reid were born on March 5, 1962 in Leith, the working-class port district just north of Edinburgh which they would later immortalize on their second album. Growing up in Edinburgh, Cornwall, and the Fife town Auchtermuchty, they listened to early rock & roll and country, gravitating toward artists like Jerry Lee Lewis and Hank Williams. After playing in various punk bands during their school years, they formed the Proclaimers in 1983 and quickly developed a regional fan base with a particularly devoted following in Inverness. As an acoustic duo singing Everly Brothers-style harmonies in the mid-’80s, the Proclaimers were certainly outliers, but a 1986 tour with the Housemartins helped win them a coveted spot on the Channel Four pop program The Tube, where their dynamic performance of early singles “Letter from America” and “Throw the R Away” effectively introduced them to the U.K. at large.
They were quickly signed to Chrysalis and their minimalist songs were cut live to tape by producer John Williams, resulting in 1987’s This Is the Story. The sparse but spirited arrangements solely featured Craig on hand percussion and Charlie on acoustic six- and 12-string guitars, with both brothers belting out their trademark, thickly accented harmonies. A full-band version of their emigration song, “Letter from America,” recorded by Gerry Rafferty, became a number three hit single in November of that year and was subsequently added to the album’s playlist alongside its original acoustic version. The Proclaimers’ 1988 follow-up, Sunshine on Leith, featured a more polished, rock-driven, full-band sound and yielded three of their best-known and enduring songs, which helped it go platinum in the U.K.