| "Stainsby Girls" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | ||||
| Single by Chris Rea | ||||
| from the album Shamrock Diaries | ||||
| B-side | "And When She Smiles" | |||
| Released | March 1985 | |||
| Length | 3:50 | |||
| Label | Magnet | |||
| Songwriter | Chris Rea | |||
| Producers | ||||
| Chris Rea singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Stainsby Girls (Official Music Video)" on YouTube | ||||
"Stainsby Girls" is a song by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released in March 1985 as the lead single from his seventh studio album, Shamrock Diaries . [1] It was written by Rea, and produced by Rea and Dave Richards. [2] "Stainsby Girls" reached No. 26 in the UK and remained in the charts for twelve weeks. [3]
"Stainsby Girls" was written by Rea as a tribute for his wife Joan, a former student of the Stainsby Secondary Modern School. [1] The single's B-side, "And When She Smiles", is listed on the back sleeve as having been "recorded on eight track on a yacht in Ibiza harbour". [2] Rea later re-recorded "Stainsby Girls" for his 1988 album New Light Through Old Windows . [4]
In a retrospective review of Shamrock Diaries, Sharon Mawer of AllMusic described the song as "easily the most like Bruce Springsteen that Rea had ever sounded". [1] Colin Larkin, in his book The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, noted the song was a "slice of nostalgia for the northern England of Rea's adolescence". [5]
| Chart (1985) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Singles Chart (V) [6] | 33 |
| Irish Singles Chart [7] | 10 |
| UK Singles Chart [3] | 26 |