The Reynolds Girls


The Reynolds Girls were a British dance pop duo composed of sisters Linda and Aisling Reynolds. They are best known for their hit single "I'd Rather Jack", which peaked at number 8 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1989, number 6 in Ireland, number 8 in the Netherlands, number 7 in the Flanders region of Belgium, and number 43 in Australia. It remained in the UK singles chart for 12 weeks. The sisters signed to the PWL record label after giving Pete Waterman a demo tape. Their single was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman.
The sisters grew up in Litherland, a suburb of Sefton, Liverpool, and were of Irish descent. The duo's younger sister, Debbie, played the original Katie Rogers, in Brookside, from 1987 to 1989.
"I'd Rather Jack" started out as a response to music critics who ignored the younger pop acts in the UK at the time, and to radio DJs who continued to play older bands on their playlists rather than Stock Aitken Waterman songs. It was also a response to a perceived snub at the Brit Awards, where SAW acts lost out to more "mature" acts such as Enya and Steve Winwood. After their one hit, The Reynolds Girls were dropped by the label. A second single, "Get Real", was released but this failed to chart and the duo have not made any real media appearance since. It is unknown what happened to them after they quit the music industry, and they could not be traced for a 2012 PWL reunion concert.
In a public poll conducted by Channel 4 in 2003, "I'd Rather Jack" was voted number 91 in a list of the 100 Worst Pop Records of All Time. In a documentary about PWL that aired in 2012, the people interviewed admitted that the single was indeed a tongue-in-cheek response to the critics, and in part did ruin the siblings' career after they'd recorded it.
In 2013, ITV started a search for the sisters, so they could appear in a commemorative documentary about Stock, Aitken and Waterman.