Euphoric for the people: Why it’s time to rehabilitate REM’s Shiny Happy People

Spring has dawned on the 1990s, bringing with it the promise of a new era for mainstream rock. Grunge is on the horizon. And REM, jangly dodgers from the relative backwater of Athens, Georgia, are about to become among the biggest bands in the world. Right now, they’re in New York rehearsing the single that will help seal their transition from alt-pop underdogs to generational spokespeople. They are singing “Shiny Happy People” and their enthusiasm has an almost luminescent quality (though that may have also have something to do with Stipe’s extravagantly white suit).

“Shiny Happy People”, which marks the 30th anniversary of its UK release today (6 May), is a great lost 1990s anthem. One of REM’s biggest hits, it was, in the months after its reached the airwaves, simply inescapable. The band had written it as a challenge: could they replicate the wholesome silliness of 1960s power-pop acts such as The Monkees and The Banana Splits? And it became an instant phenomenon, giving the group their highest ever UK chart placing up to that point. Reaching No 6, it peaked 13 places higher than preceding 7-inch “Losing My Religion”. And it was a highlight of the accompanying album, Out of Time, which galloped to No 1 in both Britain and America.