30 Years On, Michael Stipe Is Still Surprised ‘Losing My Religion’ Was Such a Hit

R.E.M’s ‘Losing My Religion’ has got to be one of the most recognisable and enduring songs in music history, and yet, its creator Michael Stipe insists he had no idea the track would end up being as big as it is.

In an interview with The New Yorker, the singer explained the song’s title was inspired by a turn of phrase often used in the South and, in particular, things he heard his grandmother say.

“I wasn’t actually raised in Georgia,” he said. “I was born there; I travelled a great deal. I didn’t realise that my grandmother, the way she talked—my friends who were not from the South had no idea what she was saying. None. And there are phrases that I pulled.

“’Losing my religion’ is my version of an old phrase, ‘lost my religion.’ ‘I almost lost my religion’— that’s what people would say. I changed it forever. I didn’t realise it would be a hit single”

The song, which featured on R.E.M.’s 1991 album Out of Time, peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earned two Grammy Awards — for Best Short Form Music Video and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. 

The track was the subject of an episode of Netflix’s Song Exploder (after the podcast of the same name) in which the now spilt band members of R.E.M. reminisced about how ‘Losing My Religion’ came to be.

Starting with the mandolin riff, which was composed by the band’s guitarist Peter Buck, Stipe revealed that the hit song was inspired by The Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take’ and was written about unrequited love and not knowing how to make your feelings known to someone, calling it “a classic obsession pop song”.

During host Hrishikesh Hirway’s interview with drummer Bill Berry, the musician was adamant that the handclaps heard in the track were not included in the final mix, until the song is played back to him, with the drummer explaining that after 30 years he couldn’t remember adding them in.

The episode also sees Stipe get emotional as he hears the song pared back with his haunting vocals added over the top and before he expresses his admiration for the famous song and how he and his former bandmates were able to create it.

Interestingly, during the episode of Song Exploder, the band reveals their record label wanted ‘Shiny Happy People’ to be the first single released from the 1991 album, but R.E.M.  insisted on ‘Losing My Religion’ instead, as they wanted to showcase their change of musical direction.

“‘Losing My Religion’ was kind of a mistake,” Stipe says in the episode. “The fact that it became what it became is still puzzling to all of us.”

Read on for the lyrics to ‘Losing My Religion’ and revisit the music video below.

R.E.M. — ‘Losing My Religion’

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