R.E.M. made their first studio recordings on February 8, 1981. Formed the previous year, the band had already started making a name for itself in the music scene around the college town of Athens, Georgia.The February 8 session took place at Bombay Studios in Smyrna, Georgia. R.E.M. laid down the songs "Sitting Still," "Gardening At Night," "Radio Free Europe," "Shaking Through," "Mystery To Me," "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville," "Narrator" and "White Tornado."Of the songs featured at that first recording endeavor, only "Radio Free Europe," their first signature song, "Shaking Through" and "Sitting Still" would make it onto their debut album. The LP, "Murmur," would be released in 1983.In April 1981, the band would return to the studio. They would hold a session with Mitch Easter at the Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where they would re-record "Radio Free Europe" and a couple other tunes for an audition tape. That recording of “Radio Free Europe” would be released as a single in July.Eventually, the song would be re-recorded again for the "Murmur" sessions, held in early 1983.