Man on the Moon

Stipe wrote the lyrics and Berry and Buck the music. Berry brought a single chord change, and Buck built the chorus and the bridges. The song was recorded during the Seattle sessions. Stipe was stuck for words, listened to the music on a Walkman while walking around Seattle, and thought of Andy Kaufman. He wrote the lyrics late, returned to record the vocal, and the song was mixed that night. Mills said Kaufman was the perfect ghost to lead you through this tour of questioning things.

It was the album's second single, released on November 9, 1992, with New Orleans Instrumental No. 2 on the B-side. It reached No. 30 on the Hot 100, No. 18 in the UK, No. 3 in Canada and No. 1 in Iceland. Peter Care directed the black and white video over three days in Lancaster, California, in October 1992, and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 41 among the top 100 videos. Milos Forman took the song's title for his 1999 Kaufman film.

Live

The band played it with Eddie Vedder at the 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Stipe said after the 2011 split that it was the song he would miss most. Setlist.fm counts 485 performances, the third most of any R.E.M. song.