Radiohead, "Creep", and Plagiarism - Bands That Were Lucky To Make It #1 (The Hollies)

This is not a hit piece on Radiohead. But it is a piece on a hit by Radiohead.

You could be forgiven for underestimating the success of Radiohead, particularly if you weren't listening to music in 1993. If you were, though, their debut single "Creep" was everywhere. Despite winning 4 Grammy Awards among 21 nominations, Radiohead hasn't eclipsed the level "Creep" achieved in 1993 at #34 on the Billboard Hot 100, with their other two appearances being similarly muted: "High and Dry", #78, 1995 and "Nude", #37, 2008. Nevertheless, their longevity is displayed clearly in the dates of their singles.

However, Radiohead were not always on the fast-track to fame. In fact, in their native England, Radiohead was struggling early on. In what would later be a bit of irony, Radiohead's producers for their first album, Paul Koderie and Sean Slade initially thought "Creep" was a cover song when the band referred to it as their "Scott Walker" song. Once originality had been established, the song was recorded in one take.

Ok, maybe it's a bit of a cover song.

Even after the release of "Creep", it was not smooth sailing for Radiohead. They received mixed reviews, with NEM calling them "a lily-livered excuse for a rock band". BBC Radio blacklisted "Creep", citing it as "too depressing".

Regrettably, BBC Radio neglected to consider the mitigating factor of the album cover.

However, in a phrase I may unfortunately never get to use again in a music article, it was the critical support from the Israeli rock radio scene, and enthusiastic promotion by the radio DJ Yoav Kutner on his show in Tel Aviv, that resulted in Radiohead's first offer for a gig outside of the UK - in Israel. The song had become a national hit. A few radio stations in San Francisco picked it up, and suddenly Radiohead stock shot up.

I guess, in this case, Jews were actually controlling the media. Jews that look like Toby from "The Office".

The band suddenly had a ton of gigs. Too many. They played over 150 in 1993 alone. Burnout was a guarantee, especially with only one album to tour on. Response to "Creep" was so overwhelming by fans at early venues, that Radiohead started to dislike it. Lead singer Thom Yorke once told a Montreal audience clamoring for the song to "Fuck off, we're tired of it." The song wasn't played again for almost 4 years, and even then, only spontaneously due to an equipment failure which prevented the playing of another track.

This would not be the end of their struggles with "Creep". Radiohead was accused of plagiarizing "The Air That I Breathe", and sued by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, better known as "The Hollies". This had been"The Hollies" final charting hit in the US, and the audio engineering was handled by Alan Parsons. Ultimately, "The Hollies" prevailed, resulting in their addition to the credits of "Creep".

Call it a project.

Youtuber "qwirkly" has done a good job of highlighting the portion of the song in question: draw your own conclusions.

Is this a Liz Lemon style accident, intentional plagiarism, or something else? Let us know in the comments.

"In this case the creative process was I saw that name, forgot that I saw it, then said it again later."

Copyright respective artists, Image & Fact-checking: Source