Michael Stipe was born as John Michael Stipe on January 4th of 1960 in Decatur Georgia. He is most well known as the lead singer (and lyricist) for R.E.M.

R.E.M. formed in 1980 with Stipe on lead vocals, Peter Buck on guitar, Mike Mills on bass, and Bill Berry on drums. Their line-up remained unchanged until Berry left the band in the late 1990s. Since then they have not replaced Berry with an official new member.

R.E.M. released their debut album, Murmur, in 1983. It was critically acclaimed and also somewhat commercially successful (it reached #36 on the US album charts. )

They reached their commercial peak in the 1990s with 1991’s Out of Time, 1992’s Automatic for the People, and 1994’s Monster all being certified as 4x Platinum in the US (over 4 million copies shipped.)

The band has had four top 10 singles in the US: 1987’s “The One I Love” reached #9. 1988’s “Stand” reached #6. In 1991 “Losing My Religion” reached #4 and “Shiny Happy People” reached #10.

A number of their other singles are also well known and have received a lot of play on rock radio. “Fall on Me,” “Orange Crush,” “Drive,” “Man on the Moon,” “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” “Bang and Blame,” “Strange Currencies,” & “Bittersweet Me” all reached the top 10 on the US Mainstream Rock charts (along with the aforementioned four songs.)

REM’s most recent album was 2008’s Accelerate which did quite well commercially hitting #1 in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Belgium, Norway, & Greece. It reached #2 in the US. The album also received a mostly positive critical response. Fans on RateYourMusic.com also gave it a pretty warm response as it’s their highest rated album since 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

Music Video For “Man Sized Wreath”
(from Accelerate)

1960, REM, January 4

Become A MusicByDay.com Music Blogger.