News ·
Radiohead's “No Surprises” enters the UK chart at number four
“No Surprises” has gone into the UK singles chart at number four, one place below “Paranoid Android” and four above “Karma Police”. Parlophone released it on Monday 12 January as the third single from OK Computer, and every track on it was produced by Radiohead and Nigel Godrich.
Hall or Nothing, the band's London publicists, sent out the press release on 7 January with the band's words about the song from last year's interviews. Ed O'Brien told Melody Maker in May that it would not have represented the album truly as a first single. It was meant to be like a nursery rhyme. Strangely, it was the very first song we did for the album.
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O'Brien likened it to Louis Armstrong's “Wonderful World”. Thom Yorke told Vox they wanted it to sound like “What A Wonderful World” and Marvin Gaye. He told Select that the childlike guitar sound they found for it, reaching for a Pet Sounds feel, set the mood for the whole album. One of the live reviews in the release, from the Derbyshire Times, credits Jonny Greenwood with the xylophone.
Formats
| # | Format | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CD and cassette | No Surprises · Palo Alto · How I Made My Millions |
| 2 | CD | No Surprises · Airbag (live in Berlin) · Lucky (live in Florence) |
| 3 | 12-inch (not chart eligible) | No Surprises · Palo Alto |
Colin Greenwood, quoted in the same release, describes the band's method. Scare the living daylights out of 'em, then soothe their brow: that's the Radiohead way.
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