Shamrock Diaries

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Shamrock Diaries is the seventh studio album by Chris Rea, released in 1985.

This album represents the beginning of a creative and commercial zenith for Rea. Shamrock Diaries was a huge seller in Europe, reaching the Top 20 in several countries including Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The album was also successful in Australia, where it reached number one.

Summary

The track "Stainsby Girls" was written as a tribute for his wife Joan, a former student of the Stainsby Secondary Modern School.

One of the album's most popular tracks, "Josephine," was written by Rea for his daughter of the same name. Rea would later pay the same compliment to his youngest daughter, Julia, on the album Espresso Logic (1993).

"Josephine" is a track that Rea has re-recorded many times. The version released on the original LP was replaced in later CD editions by the "disco" version, which is also the basis for the later "Josephine (La version Francais)". The original LP version was later made available on the French release "The Best of Chris Rea" in 1998. There is also the version recorded in 1988 for "New Light Through Old Windows", also available on the 1994 "The Best of Chris Rea". Additionally, there is the slower version released on the U.S. edition of "New Light Through Old Windows" in 1988, also available on the 2001 "Very Best of Chris Rea" which is itself similar, though not identical to the version used in the original video from 1985. Finally in 2008 another re-recording was released on the Germany-only "Fool (If You Think It's Over) - The Definitive Greatest Hits"

"Josephine" was also sampled in 2000 by Superfunk for their song "Lucky Star", with Ron Carroll, although the samples comes from another (shorter) version of the song.

Track listing

All songs by Chris Rea.

1. "Steel River" – 6:15
2. "Stainsby Girls" – 3:51
3. "Chisel Hill" – 4:03
4. "Josephine" – 4:26 (3:56 in later pressings)
5. "One Golden Rule" – 4:29
6. "All Summer Long" – 4:09
7. "Stone" – 4:23
8. "Shamrock Diaries" – 4:55
9. "Love Turns To Lies" – 4:11
10. "Hired Gun" – 8:03

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Germany (BVMI)	Gold	250,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)	Silver	60,000^
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Personnel

• Chris Rea – vocals, guitar, organ, keyboards, synthesizer, slide guitar, producer
• Robert Ahwai – guitar
• Simon Nicol – guitar
• Eoghan O'Neill – bass
• Kevin Leach – keyboards
• Max Middleton – keyboards
• Annie Whitehead – trombone
• Dave Mattacks – drums
• Adrian Rea – drums
• Martin Ditcham – percussion
• David Richards – producer, engineer
• Barry Hammond – engineer

Singles

1. "Stainsby girls" b/w "And when she smiles", "Sunrise", "Dancing shoes", "September blue"
2. "Josephine" b/w "Josephine (Remix)", "Everytime it rains"