10 Incredible Songs That Took NO Time To Write

Compared to other members of its stringed brethren, the mandolin has had quite a lot of exposure down the years.

Who can forget, for example, Nicholas Cage running around pretending to be an Italian solider on a Greek island during the Second World War with Penelope Cruise fawning all over him cause he could shred a tiny fretboard? Captain Corelli’s Baritone Ukulele just doesn’t have the same ring to it, somehow.

But in many ways, that flimsy blockbuster, and the novel that inspired it, were something of a second coming for the humble mandolin. You see, well before Cage was putting on an accent the likes of which the world had never heard before, R.E.M guitarist Peter Buck was sat around watching TV one afternoon with a newly purchased instrument he had no idea of how to play.

Quite by accident, during his amateurish noodling, he stumbled across the intro riff to Losing My Religion - one of the greatest alternative songs of all time, hands down, no arguments please. From there, Buck claims to have penned the rest of the music in about five minutes, and singer Michael Stipe was equally speedy, whacking out his vocal track in one take too.

Such genius without even trying - makes you sick, doesn’t it?