What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" is a song by American alternative rock band R.E.M. from their ninth studio album, Monster (1994). The song's title refers to an incident in New York City in 1986 in which two then-unknown assailants attacked journalist Dan Rather while repeating "Kenneth, what is the frequency?"
| "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by R.E.M. | ||||
| from the album Monster | ||||
| B-side | "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" (instrumental version) | |||
| Released | September 5, 1994 | |||
| Recorded | October 1993 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:00 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) |
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| R.E.M. singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio sample | ||||
"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"
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The song was the first single taken from the album and was released by Warner Bros. on September 5, 1994. It peaked at number 21 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number two in Canada, number four in New Zealand, and number nine on the UK Singles Chart. In Iceland, it peaked at number one for four weeks. It was the first song to debut at number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Its music video was directed by Peter Care.
"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" was placed on R.E.M.'s compilation albums In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003 in 2003 and Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011 in 2011, the only track from Monster to feature on either. The song was one of the band's most-played songs at live gigs, and was played at every show on their 2008 Accelerate tour. A live version was released on R.E.M. Live in 2007.