R.E.M.’s Peter Buck records cover of 1968 track ‘Shape of Things To Come’

R.E.M.’s Peter Buck has recorded a cover in celebration of one of his favorite music films of the 1960s.

Buck revealed the news on R.E.M.’s Instagram account. He explained that after he appeared on the Revolutions Per Movie podcast, where he discussed the 1968 rock ‘n’ roll movie Wild in the Streets, he recorded a cover of the movie’s theme song, “Shape of Things To Come,” featuring Vanessa Briscoe Hay from the Athens, Georgia, band Pylon and Camper Van Beethoven’s Victor Krummenacher.

The song is available on limited-edition flexi disc to those who join the Revolutions Per Movie club.

Wild in the Streets, based on the Robert Thom short story The Day It All Happened, Baby!, starred Christopher Jones, Hal Holbrook and Shelley Winters. The song, “Shape of Things To Come,” was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill, and was performed by the movie’s fictional band, Max Frost and the Troopers.

While Buck is no longer making music with R.E.M., he is still making music. In 2024 he teamed with The Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson, Screaming Trees/Mad Season drummer Barrett Martin and singer Joseph Arthur to form the supergroup Silverlites, which released their debut album in November.