Orange Crush

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"Orange Crush"
Single by R.E.M.
from the album Green
Released	December 1988
Format	7" Single
Recorded	1988
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	3:51
Label	Warner Bros. Records
Producer	Scott Litt & R.E.M.
R.E.M. singles chronology
"Finest Worksong" (1988) "Orange Crush" (1988) "Stand" (1989)

"Orange Crush" is a song by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was released as the first single from the band's sixth studio album, Green, in 1988. It was not commercially released in the US despite reaching number one as a promotional single on both the Mainstream and Modern Rock Tracks (where it at the time had the record for longest stay at number one with eight weeks, beating U2). It peaked at number 28 on the UK Singles Charts, easily making it the band's then-highest chart in Britain.

The video for the song, directed by Matt Mahurin, won the band its first VMA, for Best Post-Modern Video. "Orange Crush" was also the first song to win in the category.

The song was placed on R.E.M.'s Warner Bros. Records compilation In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 in 2003, and a live version appears on the R.E.M. Live album recorded in Dublin in 2005.

Although Orange Crush is the name of a soft drink that predates the song's release by over eighty years, the song's title is actually a reference to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War.^[1][2] As a guest on the late-night show Last Call with Carson Daly, Michael Stipe explained that the song was about a young football player leaving the comforts of home for the war in Vietnam. Also, Stipe opened the song during The Green World Tour by singing the famous U.S. Army recruiting slogan, "Be all you can be... in the army."

British indie rock band Editors recorded a cover of "Orange Crush" as the B-side for the re-issue of the "Blood" single. This remake of the song was also featured in "The Metamorphosis," a fourth-season episode of The OC.

Track listing

UK 3" CD W2960CD

1. "Orange Crush" (Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe) - 3:50
2. "Ghost Rider" (Suicide cover, written by Martin Reverby, Alan Vega) - 3:45
3. "Dark Globe" (Syd Barrett) - 1:52

Charts

References