Fake Plastic Trees

Radiohead are credited, with Yorke the main songwriter. John Leckie produced at RAK Studios in London in 1994, and sessions were strained by EMI's pressure for another "Creep". After a Jeff Buckley concert Yorke recorded a solo acoustic take that influenced the final version. Yorke sings and plays acoustic guitar, Jonny Greenwood plays electric guitar and Hammond organ, and both arranged the strings, played by Caroline Lavelle on cello and John Matthias on viola and violin among others. Yorke called it the product of a joke that wasn't really a joke, a very lonely, drunken evening.

The single, the third from The Bends and the first in the US, came out on May 15, 1995 on Parlophone, UK CD1 CDRS 6411, with "India Rubber" and "How Can You Be Sure?" among the B-sides. It reached 20 in the UK and 11 on the US Alternative chart, and is certified Platinum in the UK, Canada and New Zealand. The Jake Scott video has Yorke in a supermarket trolley, and an acoustic version is in the film Clueless. Rolling Stone placed it 385th in its 2003 list of the 500 greatest songs, and Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time put it 28th in 2009. Alanis Morissette played it on her 1996 tour, and Vance Joy and Hayley Williams have covered it. A live version from the Tibetan Freedom Concert at Downing Stadium in New York on June 7, 1997 was released on November 4, 1997.