Let's be honest: The Corrs don't look like the sort of band that would hold the interest of thousands of rabid Rolling Stones fans.

They're not a typical rock band, for starters. Their lineup looks more like a folk outfit, what with siblings Andrea, Caroline, Sharon and Jim on tin whistle, bodhran, violin and guitar, respectively. Even when Caroline shifts to the drum kit and Jim goes electric, the quartet seems much more pop than it does rock.

So imagine Mick Jagger's surprise when these four almost upstaged the Stones in Germany. As Jagger told Europe's El Mundo, the Corrs "were on the verge of blowing us, the Rolling Stones, off our own stage!"

"They were very nice," says Jim Corr of Jagger and company. "They were actually dancing on the side of the stage while we were on." (The Corrs will open for the Rolling Stones again at Washington's MCI Center on Sunday and Monday.)

Having the Rolling Stones as fans is a feather in any band's cap. But these days, being into the Corrs is not that unusual -- especially in Britain. Not only is the group's current album, "Talk On Corners," at the top of the charts, but its 1995 debut, "Forgiven, Not Forgotten," is at No. 7, while their latest single, "Runaway," just entered the charts at No. 4. The group also just won a Brit Award -- the English equivalent of a Grammy -- for Best International Group.

Basically, it seems as if the whole of Britain is Corrs-crazy.

"That's the way it's become now," says Jim Corr, matter-of-factly. At the moment, he's backstage at an arena in Glasgow, Scotland, where he and his sisters are about to play to yet another sold-out house.

"We are household names in the U.K.," he says. "We've got to No. 1 seven times here in the albums chart, and all of our singles have gone Top Five. So I'd have to say that we are extremely popular here at the moment, yeah."

While Corr admits that it's "rewarding at last to achieve the success that we'd hoped to achieve," he also knows the Corrs got that fame the old-fashioned way: They earned it.

"All this hard work that we've done has paid off, and we're managing to play to so many people," he says. "It is a joy, but still slightly nerve-wracking."

Here in the States, however, the Corrs have their work cut out for them. Far from topping it, "Talk on Corners" is nowhere to be found on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart; Atlantic Records, the Corrs' American label, is relaunching the album with a remixed version, "Talk On Corners: Special Edition."

Corr admits that cracking the American market will take some work. "Taste [in America] is slightly different, that's for sure," he says. "But we intend to overcome all the hurdles that come our way."

Getting the Corrs' music on American radio is obviously part of the strategy, but Pat Creed, senior director for product development at Atlantic Records, says that seeing the band is usually what wins people over.

"With the Corrs, radio [support] has tended to follow everything else," he says. "They get by more on the force of personality and the force of their very singular musicianship. People see them, and they just get it."

It helps that the four Corrs have been playing together since childhood, although their reliance on traditional Irish folk elements may be misleading. "We grew up mainly listening to pop and rock, to be honest," says Corr. "We listened to traditional music and then also listened to classical music. Both Sharon and myself studied classical."

All of those elements are evident in "Talk on Corners." The group's pop side is apparent in "What Can I Do" (the current American single) and "I Never Loved You Anyway," while its rock roots are manifest in "Only When I Sleep" and covers of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and the Jimi Hendrix classic "Little Wing."

When opening for the Stones, Corr says, the group will emphasize the latter aspect of its sound. "We'll do most of the rockier numbers of our set to try and make the Stones' audience happy," says Corr. "It's a hell of an opportunity to get this chance."

In addition to opening for the Stones in several cities, the Corrs will be playing on "Saturday Night Live" next weekend and "Late Show with David Letterman" on April 1. But even with all that, Corr recognizes that winning the American market won't be an easy proposition.

"It's such a huge country," he says. "So we understand that it's going to take time. All we can do is do our best and go in there with the belief and the intention to crack it."

Stones and Corrs

When: Sunday and Monday, 7: 30 p.m.

Where: MCI Center, 601 F St. N.W., Washington

Tickets: Remaining tickets are $50-$300

Call: 410-481-7328 for tickets, 202-628-3200 for information

Pub Date: 3/05/99