Losing My Religion
"Losing My Religion" | ||||
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Single by R.E.M. | ||||
from the album Out of Time | ||||
B-side | "Rotary Eleven" | |||
Released | February 19, 1991 | |||
Recorded | September–October 1990 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 4:28 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) |
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R.E.M. singles chronology | ||||
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Audio sample | ||||
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"Losing My Religion" is a song by
Background
R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck wrote the main riff and chorus to the song on a mandolin while watching television one day. Buck had just bought the instrument and was attempting to learn how to play it, 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."[7]
Recording of the song started in September 1990 at
Composition and lyrics
"Losing My Religion" is based on Peter Buck's mandolin-playing. Buck said, "The verses are the kinds of things R.E.M. uses a lot, going from one minor to another, kind [of] like those 'Driver 8' chords. You can't really say anything bad about E minor, A minor, D, and G – I mean, they're just good chords." Buck noted that "Losing My Religion" was "probably the most typical R.E.M.-sounding song on the record. We are trying to get away from those kind of songs, but like I said before, those are some good chords."[8] Orchestral strings play through parts of the song. The song is in natural minor.[11]
Stipe has repeatedly stated that the song's lyrics are not about
Release and performance
"Losing My Religion" was released on February 19, 1991, in the United States as the lead single from R.E.M.'s forthcoming album Out of Time.
"Losing My Religion" became R.E.M.'s biggest hit in the U.S., peaking at No. 4 on the
"We were once in Paraguay, well into the jungle," Mills told Vulture in 2023. "We were going to help sign over 500,000 acres to the Indigenous Aché people of northern Paraguay. We were still getting reception from the local radio station and 'Losing My Religion' came on. That was pretty surprising. That's when we knew we had a worldwide hit."[20]
Critical reception
Caren Myers from
The single placed second in the
Music video
The accompanying music video for "Losing My Religion" was directed by Tarsem Singh. As opposed to previous R.E.M. videos, Michael Stipe agreed to lip sync the lyrics.[33] The video originated as a combination of ideas envisioned by Stipe and Singh. Stipe wanted the promo to be a straightforward performance video, akin to Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U". Singh wanted to create a video in the style of a certain type of Indian filmmaking, where everything would be "melodramatic and very dreamlike", according to Stipe.[34] Singh has said the video is modeled after the Gabriel García Márquez short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" in which an angel crashes into a town and the villagers have varied reactions to him.[35]
The video begins with a brief sequence inside a dark room where water drips from an open window. Recreating a scene from the Andrei Tarkovsky film The Sacrifice, Buck, Berry, and Mills run across the room while Stipe remains seated as a pitcher of milk drops from the windowsill and shatters; the song then begins. Director Singh also drew inspiration from the Italian painter Caravaggio and the video is laden with religious imagery such as Saint Sebastian, the Biblical episode of the Incredulity of Thomas and Hindu deities, portrayed in a series of tableaux.[36] Actor Wade Dominguez (1966-1998), who played Emilio in Dangerous Minds (1995), appears in the music video.[37]
The music video was nominated in nine categories at the 1991
The music video hit one billion views on YouTube in September 2022, becoming the band's first video to do so.[39]
MTV performances
On November 10, 1991, R.E.M. performed "Losing My Religion" with members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the tenth anniversary of MTV. It was recorded at the Madison Morgan Cultural Centre in Madison, Georgia, about twenty miles south of Athens.[40]
They also performed the song earlier in the year for MTV Unplugged, and again in 2001.
Personnel
Personnel adapted from Out of Time liner notes,[41] except where noted
R.E.M.
- Bill Berry – drums, percussion
- Peter Buck – electric guitar, mandolin
- Mike Mills – bass guitar, backing vocals, string synthesizer and arrangement
- Michael Stipe – lead vocals
Additional musicians
- Mark Bingham – arrangement[42]
- Peter Holsapple – acoustic guitar
Track listing
All songs were written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe except where noted.
7-inch
- "Losing My Religion" – 4:29
- "Rotary Eleven" – 2:32
12-inch and compact disc
- "Losing My Religion" – 4:29
- "Rotary Eleven" – 2:32
- "After Hours" (Lou Reed) (Live)1 – 2:08
UK "Collector's Edition" CD one
- "Losing My Religion" – 4:29
- "Stand" (Live)1 – 3:21
- "Turn You Inside-Out" (Live)1 – 4:23
- "World Leader Pretend" (Live)1 – 4:24
UK "Collector's Edition" CD two
- "Losing My Religion" – 4:29
- "Fretless" – 4:51
- "Losing My Religion" (Live acoustic version/Rockline) – 4:38
- "Rotary Eleven" – 2:32
Notes
- 1. Taken from the live performance video, Tourfilm.
Charts
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[79] | Platinum | 90,000‡ |
Italy (FIMI)[80] | 2× Platinum | 100,000‡ |
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[81] | 3× Platinum | 180,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI)[82] | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA)[83] Physical single |
Gold | 500,000^ |
United States (RIAA)[84] Digital single |
Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Release history
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Europe | February 19, 1991 |
|
Warner Bros.
|
[43] |
United States |
|
[15] | ||
United Kingdom | February 25, 1991 |
|
[85] |
Covers
Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) covered the song in the 2010 Glee episode "Grilled Cheesus".[86] The song reached number 60 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 47 on the Canadian Hot 100.[87][88] Tori Amos recorded a cover version which appeared in the film Higher Learning. Italian band Lacuna Coil covered the song on their 2012 album Dark Adrenaline. Italian metal band Graveworm covered the song on their 2003 album Engraved in Black. American heavy metal band Trivium covered the song on their 2013 album Vengeance Falls.[89] Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Mangan covered the song on his 2020 album Thief.[90] Hootie & the Blowfish covered the song for the 2020 reissue of their 2019 album Imperfect Circle. In a 2020 interview, guitarist Matt Bryan emphasized how influential R.E.M. had been in the band's development.[91][92]
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Bibliography
- Black, Johnny. Reveal: The Story of R.E.M. Backbeat Books, 2004. ISBN 978-0-87930-776-9
- Buckley, David. R.E.M.: Fiction: An Alternative Biography. Virgin, 2002. ISBN 978-1-85227-927-1