The Scottish band The Proclaimers only had one true runaway hit, but that was all they needed. In 1988 they released “500 Miles (I’m Gonna Be),” an almost-supernaturally catchy tune about a guy who measures his love for his lover through hypothetical miles walked.
“I would walk five hundred miles, and I would walk five hundred more,” the chorus starts. It’s the same basic premise behind Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles,” released in 2002, and just as romantic.
The song reached No. 11 on the UK singles chart, and in 1993 (after it appeared in the American film Benny & Joon) it reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song would remain a staple at the band’s concerts for decades, although it wouldn’t be until 2007 that “500 Miles” reached the true height of its popularity.
For UK audiences, that boost likely came from the UK’s Comic Relief charity telethon in March that year, but for Americans the boost came from a beloved sitcom TV episode released a few weeks earlier.
In February 2007, ‘500 Miles’ Made Its Debut on ‘How I Met Your Mother’
Most of the time when a song is featured on a TV show, it’s simply as one-off background music intended to heighten the scene but not call attention to itself. The CBS sitcom HIMYM took a different approach.
Its season 2 episode “Arrivederci, Fiero” establishes that Marshall’s (Jason Segel’s) car has had a tape of The Proclaimers’ hit song stuck in the radio for decades, which means it’s the only song he can listen to when driving.
This is both a blessing and a curse. Because “500 Miles,” like any song no matter how good, does start to wear on Marshall and Ted (Josh Radnor) after a while. But unlike most songs, Marshall explains, “500 Miles” has a tendency to “come around again.” And so comes a montage of Ted and Marshall flipping back and forth between feeling exhausted from the song and singing their hearts out to it.
The song became a running gag on the show, playing every time there was a flashback to Marshall and Ted on a college road trip. Viewers on the sitcom’s subreddit have talked about first hearing the song through the show, while others have revealed that they themselves have chosen to listen to the song on a non-stop loop to see if it truly “comes back around.”
“On New Year’s Day a couple of years ago me and my boyfriend literally only listened to that song all day,” one fan wrote in 2022. “It was fun, but I can’t imagine doing it for as long as Marshall had.”
The Proclaimers have never publicly talked about the episode, but they did marvel in a recent interview about how their song “came back stronger and stronger” years after it first released. Today, the song has over 1 billion streams on Spotify, over nine times more than their second-highest song “I’m on My Way.”
Of course, not all of that can be attributed to How I Met Your Mother, but the song’s inclusion in the hit CBS sitcom (which is still being streamed by millions of viewers to this day) certainly didn’t hurt. For young American viewers “Arrivederci, Fiero” might’ve been their first time hearing “500 Miles (I’m Gonna Be),” but it certainly wouldn’t be their last.
Hence then, the article about how i met your mother got a new generation hooked on this 1988 folk rock song hit was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Got a New Generation Hooked on This 1988 Folk Rock Song Hit )
Also on site :
- Elvis Presley Estate Sues AI Company for Training Use of 274 ‘Iconic’ Songs Without Permission
- 1989 Classic Cover, Hailed as One of Dolly Parton’s ‘Best Songs of All Time,’ Gets New Life by Reba McEntire
- Christopher Abbott Gushes Over Welcoming First Child with Partner Aubrey Plaza: ‘It’s Like the Best Movie Ever’