The Bends (song)

"The Bends"
"The Bends"
Single by Radiohead
from the album The Bends
B-side	"My Iron Lung" (live); "Bones" (live);
Written	1992
Released	26 July 1996
Recorded	July 1994
Studio	The Manor (Oxfordshire)
Genre	Alternative rock; hard rock; grunge;
Length	4:06 (album version); 4:50 (demo version); 3:58 (Black Sessions version); 3:53 (Jools Holland version);
Label	Parlophone
Songwriter(s)	Thom Yorke; Jonny Greenwood; Ed O'Brien; Colin Greenwood; Philip Selway;
Producer(s)	John Leckie
Radiohead singles chronology
Licensed audio
	"The Bends" on YouTube

"The Bends" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead from their second studio album, The Bends (1995). In Ireland, it was released by Parlophone on 26 July 1996 as the album's sixth and final single, and reached number 26 on the Irish Singles Chart.

"The Bends" was written in 1992 during the grunge era, predating Radiohead's 1992 debut single, "Creep", and debut studio album, Pablo Honey (1993). A fan favourite, Radiohead performed it numerous times over the next two years, before recording it at the Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, with producer John Leckie. It is one of Radiohead's most performed songs.

"The Bends" has been compared to the work of bands such as Queen, the Beatles, Pixies, the Smiths, and Oasis; the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, described it as a "Bowie pastiche". It contains five sections, making it one of the most complex tracks on The Bends. Several critics interpreted the lyrics as a comment on the success of "Creep", which had led the media to dub them a one-hit-wonder. Yorke said the lyrics were intended to be humorous and had been misinterpreted.

Although "The Bends" has been musically characterised by critics as Britpop, a British-based music genre that Yorke and lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood have criticised in press interviews, some commentators have noted that the lyrics indirectly satirise the genre and its cultural movement.

"The Bends" was included on the greatest hits album, Radiohead: The Best Of (2008), and other versions have appeared on compilations by Radiohead and other artists. In 2017, Uncut ranked it as the third-greatest Radiohead song. NME ranked the guitar solo as the seventh-greatest in music history.