“True Love Waits” by Radiohead

Radiohead chased "True Love Waits" for more than two decades before finally pinning it down to close A Moon Shaped Pool, their ninth album, in 2016. They first played it in 1995 with Thom Yorke on acoustic guitar, and Yorke kept it alive solo for years on guitar or Rhodes piano, until it became one of the most famous songs the band had never released; a live take surfaced on I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings in 2001.

The studio was another story. The band and Nigel Godrich tried it in style after style without settling on an arrangement, and one attempt became the foundation of "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" on Amnesiac. What they landed on is a bare piano ballad, and critics felt the long wait gave it extra power. Pitchfork later ranked it among the decade's greatest songs.

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