Their first album was The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest (1984) after which Jim Sangster joined the group on bass and McCaughey switched from bass to guitar. Carroll left the group in 1988, and was replaced by Kurt Bloch from The Fastbacks. The song "Amy Grant", a comical song about Contemporary Christian music and pop music artist Amy Grant, from the album The Men Who Loved Music, was a huge success on college radio and arguably their biggest hit. From 1994 to 2011, McCaughey was a sort of "fifth member" of R.E.M., working with the band both onstage and in the studio.