Radiohead has joined YouTube's elite billion views club with the video for their 1992 hit "Creep."
The video for the British band's first hit is a moody performance clip featuring singer Thom Yorke, guitarists Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, bassist Colin Greenwood and drummer Philip Selway.
"Creep" has been a mixed blessing for the band. It was the group's first hit, that initially gained notice in Israel before finding success in New Zealand, Spain, Scandinavia, and the U.S., where it climbed to No. 2 on Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart in 1993.
Radiohead initially didn't plan to release the song but recorded it following the suggestion of producers Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie. Radiohead grew to like it less when it became a hit and threatened to turn the band into a one-hit wonder.
The band, which is currently on hiatus, stopped playing the song live, although fans would frequently yell requests for "Creep." In an interview with The New York Times, Yorke admitted he was also annoyed by questions from DJs as to whether the song was autobiographical. ''You can't imagine how horrible that was,'' he said. ''And the thing about being a one-hit wonder: you know, you do come to believe it. You say you don't but you do. It messed me up good and proper.''
Although several notable artists ranging from Prince and the Pretenders to Kelly Clarkson and Olivia Rodrigo have covered the song, "Creep" brought Radiohead additional grief. The band was sued for copyright infringement by Albert Hammond (father of The Strokes' guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.) and Mike Hazlewood, who penned "The Air That I Breathe," a hit for The Hollies in 1974. The suit was settled with Hammond and Hazlewood credited alongside Radiohead on physical copies of the single and album Pablo Honey, the band's debut album that featured the track.
Strangely, Lana Del Rey claimed in a 2018 tweet that Radiohead were suing her for allegedly plagiarizing "Creep" with her 2017 song "Get Free." She later said that the lawsuit was settled.
Yorke reclaimed the song in 2021 with a droning remixed version of the track, which time-stretched the acoustic version of "Creep" to nine minutes with added synthesizers. It was first used in a show by Japanese fashion designer Jun Takahashi, who also created artwork for the remix's video.
