Losing My Religion

1991 song by R.E.M.

"Losing My Religion" is a 1991 rock song from R.E.M.. The song became R.E.M.'s highest charting song for the United States. It hit #4 on Billboard Hot 100. It was nominated for several Grammy Awards. It won two.

"Losing My Religion"
Song by R.E.M.
from the album Out of Time
B-side"Rotary Eleven"
ReleasedFebruary 19, 1991 (1991-02-19)
RecordedSeptember–October 1990
StudioBearsville, Woodstock, New York, United States; John Keane Studios, Athens, Georgia, United States (recording); Soundscape Studios, Atlanta, Georgia, United States (strings)
GenreAlternative rock
Length4:28
LabelWarner Bros.
Songwriter(s)Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe
Producer(s)Scott Litt and R.E.M.
R.E.M. singles chronology
"Get Up"
(1989)
"Losing My Religion"
(1991)
"Shiny Happy People"
(1991)

The song was released on February 19, 1991.

R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck wrote the riff and chorus to the song on a mandolin while learning to play it. Buck had just bought the instrument and was recording the music as he practiced. Buck said that "when I listened back to it the next day, there was a bunch of stuff that was really just me learning how to play mandolin, and then there's what became 'Losing My Religion', and then a whole bunch more of me learning to play the mandolin."[1]

Further reading

change
  • Black, Johnny. Reveal: The Story of R.E.M. Backbeat Books, 2004. ISBN 978-0-87930-776-9

References

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  1. Black, p. 177