Planet Telex / High and Dry

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"Planet Telex" / "High and Dry"
High and Dry Planet Telex CD1.jpg
Single by Radiohead
from the album The Bends
Released27 February 1995 (1995-02-27)[1]
Recorded1993
Studio
GenreAlternative rock
Length
  • 4:18 ("Planet Telex")
  • 4:17 ("High and Dry")
Label
Songwriter(s)Radiohead
Producer(s)
Radiohead singles chronology
"My Iron Lung"
(1994) 		"Planet Telex" / "High and Dry"
(1995) 		"Fake Plastic Trees"
(1995)
Audio sample
Menu
0:00
Sample of "High and Dry"
  • file
  • help
Music video
"High and Dry" on YouTube

"Planet Telex" and "High and Dry" are songs by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released as a double-A side single from their second studio album, The Bends (1995), on 5 March 1995. "High and Dry" was recorded as a demo during the sessions of Radiohead's first album, Pablo Honey (1993), and remastered for inclusion on The Bends. Two music videos were produced for "High and Dry".

Recording[]

Radiohead wrote and recorded "Planet Telex" in a single session at RAK Studios while working on their second studio album, The Bends (1995). It developed from experiments with a drum loop taken from B-side "Killer Cars", to which the band added piano processed with multiple delay effects. As the band had returned from a restaurant, songwriter Thom Yorke recorded the vocals drunk, slumped in a corner. According to producer John Leckie, "We had the whole thing down within a couple of hours, which was really refreshing and fun to do."[2] The original title was "Planet Xerox", but the band were denied permission to use the Xerox trademark.[2]

Yorke performed an early version of "High and Dry" with the band Headless Chickens while he was a student at the University of Exeter in the late 1980s.[3] He said the lyrics were about "some loony girl I was going out with", but became "mixed up with ideas about success and failure".[4] In 1993, Radiohead recorded a demo version with their live engineer, Jim Warren,[5] but dismissed it as "too Rod Stewart".[4] It was rediscovered and remastered for inclusion on The Bends.[5]

Legacy[]

Pitchfork credited Bends songs as such as "High and Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees" for anticipating the "airbrushed" post-Britpop of Coldplay and Travis.[6] The Irish Times said that "High and Dry" had "essentially invented Coldplay".[7] In a 2006 interview with Pitchfork, Yorke said that the label had pressured him to release it and that it was a "very bad" song.[8]

Music videos[]

Two music videos were created for "High and Dry": one for the British market, featuring Radiohead in a California desert, and one for the USA, set in a diner. Only the US version appears on the band's 1998 video compilation 7 Television Commercials. Both appear on the Radiohead: The Best Of DVD, released in 2008 by EMI.[citation needed]

Track listing[]

CD1
No.TitleLength
1."High and Dry"4:17
2."Planet Telex"4:18
3."Maquiladora"3:27
4."Planet Telex" (Hexidecimal Mix)6:44
Total length:18:46
CD2
No.TitleLength
1."Planet Telex"4:18
2."High and Dry"4:17
3."Killer Cars"3:02
4."Planet Telex" (L.F.O. JD Mix)4:40
Total length:16:17
12" vinyl
No.TitleLength
1."Planet Telex" (Hexidecimal Mix)6:44
2."Planet Telex" (L.F.O. JD Mix)4:40
3."Planet Telex" (Hexidecimal Dub)7:32
4."High and Dry"4:17
Total length:22:14
1996 US release
No.TitleLength
1."High and Dry"4:16
2."India Rubber"3:26
3."Maquiladora"3:26
4."How Can You Be Sure?"4:21
5."Just" (live at the Forum)3:47
Total length:19:12

Personnel[]

Charts[]

Chart (1995–1996) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[9] 62
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[10] 31
Canada Rock/Alternative (RPM)[11] 11
Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[12] 70
Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40)[13] 15
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[14] 22
Scotland (OCC)[15]
with "Planet Telex" 		21
UK Singles (OCC)[16]
with "Planet Telex" 		17
US Billboard Hot 100[17] 78
US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[18] 18

Certifications[]

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[19] Platinum 80,000double-dagger
United Kingdom (BPI)[20] Silver 200,000double-dagger

double-dagger Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Notable cover versions[]

  • In 2002, British artist Jamie Cullum included a version of "High and Dry" on his first major album release Pointless Nostalgic. The track was later included on the US version of his 2003 album Twentysomething, while the UK special edition (2004) carried a live recording of the song by Cullum.
  • In 2006, American singer-songwriter Bilal and keyboardist-producer Pete Kuzma covered the song in a soul style for the Radiohead tribute album Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads.[21] According to Status magazine, a cover of this song had also been recorded by Bilal for his unreleased second album Love for Sale.[22]
  • In 2016, the song was covered by Morgan Heritage on a 10-year anniversary special edition release of Radiodread by reggae collective Easy Star All-Stars.

References[]

  1. ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 25 February 1995. p. 43. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Randall, Mac (1 February 2012). Exit Music: The Radiohead Story Updated Edition. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-1-4584-7147-5.
  3. ^ "Rare Footage Surfaces of Thom Yorke Performing "High and Dry" With Pre-Radiohead Band". Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Bambarger, Bradley (17 February 1996). "The Modern Age". Billboard.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b R, Mac; Feature, all 2015-05-15T16:10:09Z. "Radiohead's 'The Bends,' 20 Years Later: Reexamining a Modern Rock Masterpiece". guitarworld. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  6. ^ "The 50 Best Britpop Albums". Pitchfork. 29 March 2017. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  7. ^ Power, Ed (12 March 2020). "Why Radiohead's The Bends is the worst great album of all time". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  8. ^ Plagenhoef, Scott (16 August 2006). "Pitchfork: Interviews: Thom Yorke". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  9. ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
  10. ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 2933." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Top RPM Rock/Alternative Tracks: Issue 9200." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 12 no. 11. 18 March 1995. p. 27. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  13. ^ "Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 (15.4. '95 – 21.4. '95)". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 12 April 1995. p. 62. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  14. ^ "Charts.nz – Radiohead – High and Dry". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  15. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  16. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  17. ^ "Radiohead Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  18. ^ "Radiohead Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  19. ^ "Canadian single certifications – Radiohead – High and Dry". Music Canada. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  20. ^ "British single certifications – Radiohead – High & Dry". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  21. ^ Anon. (18 April 2006). "Aa.Vv.: Exit Music - Songs With Radio Heads". All About Jazz Italia. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  22. ^ DJ mikecons (June–July 2009). "Beats". Status. No. 7. p. 20. Retrieved 27 January 2021 – via Issuu.

External links[]

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