"Creep" is the debut single by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 21 September 1992 by EMI. It was included on Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey (1993). It features "blasts" of guitar noise and lyrics describing an obsessive unrequited attraction.

Radiohead had not planned to release "Creep", and recorded it at the suggestion of the producers, Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, while they were working on other songs. They took elements from the 1972 song "The Air That I Breathe" by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, which was later covered by the Hollies. Following legal action, Hammond and Hazlewood were credited as co-writers.

Kolderie convinced EMI to release "Creep" as a single. It was initially unsuccessful, but achieved radio play in Israel and became popular on American alternative rock radio. It was reissued in 1993 and became an international hit, likened to "slacker anthems" such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana and "Loser" by Beck. Reviews were mostly positive. Rolling Stone later named "Creep" one of the greatest debut singles and included it in the 2021 and 2024 editions of its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

The success gave Radiohead freedom on their second album, The Bends (1995). EMI pressured Radiohead to match the success, which created tension. Radiohead departed from the style of "Creep" and grew weary of it, feeling it set narrow expectations of their music, and did not perform it for several years. Though they achieved greater commercial and critical success with later albums, "Creep" remains Radiohead's most successful single. It has been covered by numerous artists. In 2021, the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, released a remix with synthesisers and time-stretched acoustic guitar.

Recording

Radiohead formed in Oxfordshire in 1985 and signed a record contract with EMI in 1991. Their 1992 debut, the Drill EP, drew little attention. For their debut single, Radiohead hired the producers Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie and recorded at Chipping Norton Recording Studios in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. They worked on the songs "Inside My Head" and "Lurgee", but without results.

Between rehearsals, Radiohead spontaneously performed another song, "Creep", which the singer, Thom Yorke, had written at the University of Exeter in the late 1980s. Yorke jokingly described it as their "Scott Walker song", which the producers misinterpreted. As they left the studio that night, Slade told Kolderie, "Too bad their best song's a cover."

After further recording sessions failed to produce results, Kolderie suggested Radiohead perform "Creep". After the first take, everyone in the studio burst into applause. Radiohead did not know they were being recorded; according to the drummer, Philip Selway, "The reason it sounds so powerful is because it's completely unselfconscious."

After Radiohead assured Kolderie that "Creep" was an original song, he called EMI and convinced them to release it as the single. According to Kolderie, "Everyone [at EMI] who heard 'Creep' just started going insane." Slade and Kolderie suggested that the lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, record a piano part. While mixing the song, Kolderie forgot to add the piano until the outro, but the band approved of the result.Randall, p. 98

Lyrics According to the critic Alex Ross, "Creep" has "obsessive" lyrics that depict the "self-lacerating rage" of an unrequited attraction. Greenwood said the lyrics were inspired by a woman who Yorke had "followed for a couple of days", and who unexpectedly attended a Radiohead performance. John Harris, then the Oxford correspondent for Melody Maker, said "Creep" was about a girl who frequented the upmarket Little Clarendon Street in Oxford. According to Harris, Yorke preferred the more bohemian Jericho, and expressed his discomfort using the lines "What the hell am I doing here / I don't belong here".

Asked if the lyrics were inspired by a real person who made him feel like a "creep", Yorke said: "Yeah. It was a pretty strange period in my life. When I was at college and stuff and I was really fucked up and wanted to leave and do proper things with my life like be in a rock band." Yorke said he was not happy with the lyrics, and thought they were "pretty crap". Asked about "Creep" in 1993, Yorke said: "I have a real problem being a man in the '90s... Any man with any sensitivity or conscience toward the opposite sex would have a problem. To actually assert yourself in a masculine way without looking like you're in a hard-rock band is a very difficult thing to do... It comes back to the music we write, which is not effeminate, but it's not brutal in its arrogance. It is one of the things I'm always trying: to assert a sexual persona and on the other hand trying desperately to negate it."Sullivan, Jim. "Creep stumbles onto fame". The Boston Globe. 8 October 1993. Greenwood said "Creep" was in fact a happy song about "recognising what you are".

Radiohead recorded a censored version of "Creep" for radio, which replaces the line "so fucking special" with "so very special". Radiohead worried that issuing a censored version would be selling out, but decided it was acceptable since their idols Sonic Youth had done the same thing. Nonetheless, Greenwood said the British press "weren't impressed". During the recording session for the censored lyrics, Kolderie convinced Yorke to rewrite the first verse, saying he thought Yorke could do better.Randall, p. 99

Composition

Like many Radiohead songs, "Creep" uses pivot notes, creating a "bittersweet, doomy" feeling. The G–B–C–Cm chord progression is repeated throughout, alternating between arpeggiated chords in the verses and last chorus and distorted power chords during the first two choruses. In G major, these may be interpreted as "I–V7/vi–IV–iv".

According to Guy Capuzzo, the ostinato mirrors the lyrics. For example, the "highest pitches of the ostinato form a prominent chromatic line that 'creeps' up, then down, involving scale degrees – – – ....[while] ascend[ing], the lyrics strain towards optimism... Descend[ing], the subject sinks back into the throes of self-pity ... The guitarist's fretting hand mirrors this contour."Capuzzo ibid. Also quotes Ross 2001, 118.

The middle eight originally featured a guitar solo from Greenwood. When the guitarist Ed O'Brien pointed out that the chord progression was the same as the 1972 song "The Air That I Breathe", Yorke wrote a new middle eight using the same vocal melody. According to Greenwood, "It was funny to us in a way, sort of feeding something like that into [it]. It's a bit of change."

Before the chorus, Jonny Greenwood plays three blasts of guitar noise ("dead notes" played by releasing fret-hand pressure and picking the strings). Greenwood said later: "I suppose the nauseating adolescent in me found it a bit wimpy and wanted to make it the opposite. Can't be having ballads!" O'Brien said: "That's the sound of Jonny trying to fuck the song up. He really didn't like it the first time we played it, so he tried spoiling it. And it made the song."CD Inlay Archive. 1993 Yorke said the sound was like the song was "slashing its wrists. Halfway through the song it suddenly starts killing itself off, which is the whole point of the song really. It's a real self-destruct song, there's a real self-destruction ethic in a lot of the things we do onstage." The producers boosted the sound so "it punched you in the face".

According to the Guardian critic Alexis Petridis, "Creep" has an "almost complete lack of resemblance" to Radiohead's later music. Yorke's later songwriting was less literal and personal.

Music video The "Creep" music video was directed by Brett Turnbull and filmed at the Venue, Oxford. For the video, Radiohead performed a free short concert, playing "Creep" several times. They donated proceeds from audience members to the Oxford magazine Curfew, which had covered their early work. In the audience was the electronic musician Four Tet, then a teenager, who years later supported Radiohead on tour and collaborated with Yorke.

Release

EMI released "Creep" as a single on 21 September 1992.Randall, p. 84-85 BBC Radio 1 found it "too depressing" and excluded it from playlists.Jennings, Dave. "Creepshow". Melody Maker. 25 September 1993. It reached number 78 on the UK singles chart, selling 6,000 copies.Randall, p. 88 Asked about the response, Yorke said he was "absolutely horribly gutted, pissed off, self-righteous". Radiohead's follow-up singles "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Pop Is Dead" were also unsuccessful.

Later in 1992, "Creep" became a hit in Israel after the DJ Yoav Kutner began playing it on Israeli radio, having been introduced to it by an EMI representative. Radiohead quickly booked tour dates in Israel to capitalise on the success. "Creep" had similar success in New Zealand, Spain, and Scandinavia.Randall, p. 90-91 The San Francisco alternative rock radio station KITS began playing "Creep" in December 1992. By Christmas, it had become the station's most requested song, leading the Los Angeles station KROQ-FM to add it to its rotation, where it also became successful. Radiohead's US record label, Capitol Records, quickly issued a promotional single to radio stations, including a censored version, and began promoting Radiohead.

"Creep" was included on Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey, released on 22 February 1993. By mid-1993, "Creep" had become a hit in America as a "slacker anthem" in the vein of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana and "Loser" by Beck. Radiohead were surprised by the success; Yorke told Melody Maker in 1993 that many journalists misunderstood it, asking him if it was a joke. In September 1993, Radiohead performed "Creep" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as the show's first musical guests. The American band Weezer cited "Creep" as an influence on their 1994 debut album, with the guitars loud in the mix.

Following pressure from the music press, EMI and fans, Radiohead reissued "Creep" in the UK.Randall, p. 117 It was released in the UK on 6 September 1993 and reached number seven, promoted with an appearance on the music programme Top of the Pops.Randall, p. 118 In the US, "Creep" was aided by its appearance in a 1994 episode of the MTV animated series Beavis and Butt-Head. Capitol used the endorsement in a marketing campaign with the slogan "Beavis and Butt-Head say [Radiohead] don't suck". An acoustic version of "Creep", taken from a live performance on KROQ-FM on 13 July 1993, was included on Radiohead's 1994 EP My Iron Lung.

In June 2008, "Creep" re-entered the UK singles chart at number 37 after its inclusion on Radiohead: The Best Of. As of April 2019, in the UK, it was the most streamed song released in 1992, with 10.1 million streams. On 23 April 2024, "Creep" surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube. It remains Radiohead's most successful single.

Critical reception Reviewing "Creep" for Melody Maker in September 1992, Sharon O'Connell described it as "a stormer, a perfect monster of a malevolent pop song ... Like all the best pop, it gently strokes the nape of your neck before it digs the bread knife in. Aggression is rarely this delicious." Larry Flick of Billboard wrote: "Minimal cut, boosted with just a touch of noise, relies mainly on an appropriately languid, melodic vocal (which also vaults into Bono-esque falsetto range) to pull the whole thing together." He predicted it could be popular on alternative rock radio and college radio.