At My Most Beautiful

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"At My Most Beautiful"
"At My Most Beautiful" cover
Single by R.E.M.
from the album Up
Released 1999
Format  ???
Recorded 1998
Genre Rock/Pop
Length 3:35
Label Warner Brothers
Producer(s) Pat McCarthy
Chart positions
  • #10 (UK)
R.E.M. singles chronology
"Lotus"
(1998)
"At My Most Beautiful"
(1999)
"Suspicion"
(1999)

"At My Most Beautiful" is a song by R.E.M. and the third single from the album Up. With a heavy influence from The Beatles and Beach Boys, lyricist Michael Stipe wanted it to be the most romantic song he'd ever written.

According to an interview to the Canadian news site CANOE, this was the inspiration for the song:

"It came from, I was driving up and down Santa Monica Boulevard when I was putting together the Patti Smith book I was working on (2XIntro: On The Road With Patti Smith). I was consistently late. It's one of my bad personality traits. I was stuck in traffic, this mid-day traffic, on Santa Monica Boulevard, but I had the tapes, and I was listening to them in the car, and I was trying to come up with stuff. I wrote the line, 'I found a way to make you smile', and I just thought, that's the most beautiful thing in the world."

The single's video, directed by Nigel Dick, shows an accident-prone cellist (played by Rain Phoenix) on her way to an audition, of which the band are the panel. It appears on In View, the DVD companion to In Time, R.E.M.'s Warner Brothers 2003 "best of" album, which also includes the song.

The single's B-side is a live version of Iggy Pop's "The Passenger" as performed on the BBC's Later with Jools Holland R.E.M. special, a 14-song set which aired on November 6, 1998.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe unless otherwise indicated.

  1. "At My Most Beautiful" (radio remix)
  2. "The Passenger" (live) (Iggy Pop)1
  3. "Country Feedback" (live)
  4. "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" (live)

[edit] Notes

1 Recorded on Later with Jools Holland's R.E.M. special; October 27, 1998.

[edit] External links

R.E.M.
Peter Buck | Mike Mills | Michael Stipe | Bill Berry
Other musicians: Scott McCaughey | Bill Rieflin | Ken Stringfellow | Nathan December | Buren Fowler | Peter Holsapple | Barrett Martin | Joey Waronker
Management and producers: Bertis Downs, IV | Pat McCarthy | Joe Boyd | Don Dixon | Mitch Easter | Don Gehman | Jefferson Holt | Scott Litt
Discography
EPs: Chronic Town
Albums: Murmur | Reckoning | Fables of the Reconstruction | Lifes Rich Pageant | Document | Green | Out of Time | Automatic for the People | Monster | New Adventures in Hi-Fi | Up | Reveal | Around the Sun
Singles: Radio Free Europe | Talk About the Passion | So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry) | (Don't Go Back to) Rockville | Can't Get There From Here | Driver 8 | Wendell Gee | Fall On Me | Superman | The One I Love | It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) | Finest Worksong | Stand | Orange Crush | Pop Song 89 | Get Up | Losing My Religion | Shiny Happy People | Near Wild Heaven | Radio Song | Drive | Man on the Moon | The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite | Everybody Hurts | Nightswimming | Find the River | What's the Frequency, Kenneth? | Bang and Blame | Star 69 | Strange Currencies | Crush With Eyeliner | Tongue | E-Bow the Letter | Bittersweet Me | Electrolite | How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us | Daysleeper | Lotus | At My Most Beautiful | Suspicion | The Great Beyond | Imitation of Life | All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star) | I'll Take the Rain | Bad Day | Animal | Leaving New York | Aftermath | Electron Blue | Wanderlust
Compilations: Dead Letter Office | Eponymous | In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 | And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987
Remix Albums: R.E.M.IX
Soundtracks: Man on the Moon
Videos: Succumbs | Tourfilm | Pop Screen | This Film Is On | Parallel | Road Movie | In View: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 | Perfect Square | When the Light Is Mine: The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987
Related articles
Alternative rock | Hindu Love Gods | I.R.S. Records | Warner Bros. Records
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