“High and Dry” by Radiohead

"High and Dry" landed on Radiohead's second album, The Bends, but it was a leftover by then: the band had cut it as a demo back during the sessions for their 1993 debut, Pablo Honey, and dusted it off, remastered, for the new record. On 27 February 1995 Parlophone put it out back to back with "Planet Telex", the two sharing top billing on one single, and it came with not one but two music videos.

It's a slow, rueful strum, Thom Yorke's voice floating high and fragile over the top, and it wears its heartache without a single cheap trick. Yorke wrote the words, and all five members share the songwriting credit. Ed O'Brien adds backing vocals, Jonny Greenwood colors the edges with organ, synth and piano, Colin Greenwood and Philip Selway keep it steady underneath, and Caroline Lavelle's cello and John Matthias's violin and viola add a faint ache of strings.

Its shadow has stretched a long way since: Travis and Coldplay have both been named as bands that learned from it.

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