Parlophone reissues Radiohead's “Creep” a year after it stalled

Parlophone reissues “Creep” in the UK today, a year after its first release got no higher than number 78. The label pushed it at the Reading Festival with posters and badges, on the weekend Radiohead themselves pulled out of Reading late because of Thom Yorke's throat.

Music Week set out the rest of the campaign on Saturday: adverts in NME, Melody Maker and Select, and a mailing to the 8,000 members of the fan club. The single is out on clear 7-inch vinyl (R 6359), CD digipak and cassette, and on a numbered, limited 12-inch in a gatefold sleeve that has four live tracks instead.

The first time round, Radio 1 played “Creep” three times in one week and then dropped it, because its bosses found it too depressing, as the Algemeen Dagblad reported in June. America has since taken to it, and on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 4 September it reached number 34. The music papers of the same Saturday welcomed it back. NME made it the reissue of the week, and in Melody Maker Simon Price picked it as one of his three singles of the week. Music Week's reviewer remembered how little national radio it got first time and decided that if Radiohead have to break at home on the back of American success, so be it.

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