REM reveal how they wrote and recorded their 1987 breakthrough track “The One I Love” in the new issue of Uncut, dated February 2015 and out now.

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Guitarist Peter Buck, who wrote the riff for the song, which even featured his first proper guitar solo, didn’t even think the single would be a success at the time.

“I just always assumed that we would never actually have a real hit single,” confides Buck. “We would write these songs and record them and go, ‘Well, you know, I like it…’

“You know Prince could walk in and cut a single, knowing it would be a hit? I never felt like that, we just write a bunch of songs and if one of them is popular, great, but I don’t really know how or why. ‘The One I Love’ fits perfectly on the record [Document], but I never saw it as a hit single.”

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The new issue of Uncut is out now.