Radio Free Europe

Mills wrote the verse and the B section, Buck the chorus and the bridge, and Stipe the melody and lyrics. Mills improvised the idea on an unplugged electric guitar in the Chapter 3 Records store in Athens, and the song was in the setlist by May 1981. The Hib-Tone single was recorded on April 15, 1981, at Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem with Mitch Easter, and released on July 8. The first pressing was about 600 promotional copies and 400 regular ones, followed by a run of 6,000. The label owner, Jonny Hibbert, preferred his own remix, and Easter's radio dub mix was also issued.

The band re-recorded it for I.R.S. at Reflection Sound between January 6 and February 23, 1983. That version runs 4:06 on the album, with a 3:10 single edit, and it reached No. 78 on the Hot 100, the band's first charting single. Mills said the song has nothing to do with the broadcaster and that they just liked the title. Stipe called the lyrics complete babbling, since they were unfinished in 1981. Arthur Pierson directed the video, shot in Howard Finster's garden at MTV's request.

Legacy

Rolling Stone placed it at No. 174 in its 2024 list of the greatest songs. The Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, citing its role in opening college radio to indie rock. Game Theory covered it from 1985, and a 1981 cassette recording from Tyrone's O.C. in Athens is streamed on the WNYC site. In 2025 a remixed version was released, with proceeds going to RFE/RL.