Creep (Radiohead song)

"Creep"
1993 EP reissue
Single by Radiohead
from the album Pablo Honey
Released	21 September 1992 (1992-09-21)
Recorded	1992
Studio	Chipping Norton (Oxfordshire, England)
Genre	Alternative rock[1] grunge[2]
Length	3:56 (album version) 4:01 (radio edit) 3:50 (live version) 4:19 (acoustic version)
Label	Parlophone Capitol
Composer(s)	Radiohead Albert Hammond Mike Hazlewood
Lyricist(s)	Thom Yorke
Producer(s)	Sean Slade Paul Q. Kolderie
Radiohead singles chronology
"Creep" (1992) "Anyone Can Play Guitar" (1993)
Music video
"Creep" on YouTube

"Creep" is the debut single by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 21 September 1992 by EMI. It was included as the second track of Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey (1993). It features "blasts" of guitar noise by Jonny Greenwood 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. 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 alt-rock "slacker anthems" such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana and "Loser" by Beck. Reviews of "Creep" were mostly positive.

EMI pressured Radiohead to match the success, which created tension during the recording of their second album, The Bends (1995). 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 was named one of the greatest debut singles and one of the greatest songs by Rolling Stone. In 2021, the singer, Thom Yorke, released a remixed version with synthesisers and time-stretched acoustic guitar.