was the first single released from
R.E.M. 's twelfth studio album ''
Reveal '' in
2001 . The song struggled in the
United States where the band's popularity had waned, peaking at a mere #83 on the
Billboard Hot 100 . It was the lowest chart of a lead single from an R.E.M. album in the U.S. since "
Fall On Me " from ''
Lifes Rich Pageant '' in
1986 , and no song from R.E.M. has charted in the U.S. since. However, it reached #6 on the
UK Singles Charts , making it what was then the eighth top 10 for the band in Britain. In Japan, the song was extremely well received, becoming R.E.M.'s first number one single in the country.
According to the
Liner Notes on ''In Time - The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003'', this song is inspired by
Douglas Sirk 's
1959 film
Of The Same Name .
The single's
Video was shot in Los Angeles by
Garth Jennings . Michael Stipe, in an interview with MTV UK in 2001, explained how the video was made. "The entire video took twenty seconds to shoot. What you're watching is a loop that goes forwards for twenty seconds, backwards for twenty seconds, forwards for twenty seconds, backwards for twenty seconds
Mills' swaying left to right accordingly as Stipe illustrates his point , with one camera, static, and then using a technique called '
Pan And Scan ', which is a technical thing that is used when they go from a widescreen format and reformat to fit your television or DVD, moving in on certain parts of the entire picture. And you'll see that we do that picking up various people within the frame."
The song was placed on R.E.M.'s
Warner Brothers "best of" album ''
In Time - The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003 '' in
2003 .
- CD (USA: 9 42363-2, UK: W559CD, Australia: 9362449942, Japan: WPCR-11011, Brazil: CDWP 056)
- # "Imitation of Life"
- # "The Lifting (Original Version)"
- # "Beat A Drum (Dalkey Demo)"
- DVD (UK: W559DVD)
- # "Imitation of Life"
- # "2JN"
- # "The Lifting (Original Version)"
- 12" (USA: 9 42363-0)
- # "Imitation of Life"
- # "The Lifting (Original Version)"
- # "Beat A Drum (Dalkey Demo)"
- # "2JN"
