Denis Leary doesn’t like R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People.” He proclaimed as much way back in 1992, the year after the Out Of Time single came out, when he did an MTV spot based on his standup routine poking fun at the state of rock ‘n’ roll. “R.E.M. ‘Shiiiiiny haaaaapy people’… hey, hey, hey, pull that bus over to the side of the Pretentiousness Turnpike…,” the comedian seethed in the promo. “I got two words for Michael Stipe: Steve. Tyler.” That sounds a bit harsh, but even Stipe has expressed some mixed feelings about the polarizing bubblegum hit, which featured the B-52s’ Kate Pierson, got R.E.M. invited to Sesame Street, and reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100. The R.E.M. frontman told Space Ghost “I hate that song” back in 1995 and explained to The Quietus in 2011 that “it’s just a little bit embarrassing that it became as big a hit as it did.”
