“Charlie Brown” by Coldplay

"Charlie Brown" was the first song Coldplay got down on tape once they started work on what became Mylo Xyloto, their fifth album, and Parlophone later made it the record's third single. Despite the title, it has nothing to do with Peanuts. An early draft of the words name-checked the cartoon kid; he was cut, but the name stuck because nobody could think of a better one, though it went by others along the way, "Cartoon Heart" among them.

Chris Martin wrote it in his daughter's doll's house, which had been turned into a studio after she decided she didn't like it. He sings lead and plays piano and acoustic guitar, Jonny Buckland takes electric guitar, Guy Berryman bass and Will Champion drums and percussion, with Berryman, Buckland and Martin all on keyboards and the other three singing backup. Q picked it as its track of the day in December 2011.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.