The Story Behind "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M.

 80s, Alternative, Flashback Fridays, Music, Pop Culture, Retro, Video  No Responses »
Aug 032012
 

 

R.E.M. released “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” on Novem­ber 16, 1987. It reached #69 on the U.S. Bill­board Hot 100 and #39 on the U.K. Sin­gles Charts on its re-release in 1991. The song is sim­i­lar in melody to “P.S.A. (Pub­lic Ser­vice Announce­ment)”. P.S.A. was later released as a sin­gle in 2003 as “Bad Day.” The song is in the tra­di­tion Bb Dylan’s “Sub­ter­ranean Home­sick Blues.”

Ver­sions
“It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” 4’04

Music Video
James Her­bert directed this music video, which fea­tures a young skate­boarder explor­ing an old house and hold­ing up what he finds.

Mem­o­ries
I remem­ber MTV play­ing this music video a lot. I ended up buy­ing the Epony­mous from the CBS Colum­bia House Music Club on CD and includ­ing the song on mix tapes for the car. I still don’t know all of the words

What are your mem­o­ries of “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M.?