At My Most Beautiful

"At My Most Beautiful"
Single by R.E.M.
from the album Up
B-side	"So. Central Rain (As Performed On BBC's 'Later' With Jools Holland)"
Released	March 8, 1999
Format	CD, 3" CD
Recorded	1998
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	3:35
Label	Warner Brothers
Producer	Pat McCarthy
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 Beach Boys (mainly Pet Sounds-era songs) and the Beatles, 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.

Track listing

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

CD

1. "At My Most Beautiful" (Radio Remix)
2. "The Passenger" (Live, Later with Jools Holland, 27.10.98) (Iggy Pop)
3. "Country Feedback" (Live, Later with Jools Holland, 27.10.98)

Japanese 3" CD

1. "At My Most Beautiful" (Live, BBC Radio Theatre, London, 25.10.98)
2. "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" (Live, Later with Jools Holland, 27.10.98)

Charts

Chart (1998)	Peak position
Irish Singles Chart	28
UK Singles Chart	10

External links

• Interview Source