High and Dry / Planet Telex

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"High and Dry" / "Planet Telex"
High and Dry Planet Telex CD1.jpg
CD1 single artwork
Single by Radiohead
from the album The Bends
Released27 February 1995 (1995-02-27) [1]
Recorded1993–1994
Studio
Genre "High and Dry":
"Planet Telex":
Length
  • 4:17 ("High and Dry")
  • 4:18 ("Planet Telex")
Label
Songwriter(s) Radiohead
Producer(s)
Radiohead singles chronology
"My Iron Lung"
(1994)		"High and Dry" / "Planet Telex"
(1995)		"Fake Plastic Trees"
(1995)
Music video
"High and Dry" on YouTube

"High and Dry" and "Planet Telex" are songs by the English rock band Radiohead. They were released as a double-A side single from Radiohead's second album, The Bends (1995), on 27 February 1995 by Parlophone and Capitol Records.

Contents

"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. It is credited as an influence on the bands Travis and Coldplay. "Planet Telex" developed from studio experimentation with drum loops. Two music videos were produced for "High and Dry".

"High and Dry"

The Radiohead songwriter, Thom Yorke, performed an early version of "High and Dry" with another band, Headless Chickens, while attending the University of Exeter in the late 1980s. [4] He said the lyrics were about "some loony girl I was going out with", but became "mixed up with ideas about success and failure". [5]

In 1993, Radiohead recorded a demo at Courtyard Studios, Oxfordshire, with their live engineer, Jim Warren. [6] They dismissed it as "too Rod Stewart". [5] The demo was rediscovered and remastered for inclusion on their second album, The Bends (1995). [6] In 2006, Yorke said "High and Dry" was "very bad" and that Radiohead's record label at the time, EMI, had pressured him to release it. [7]

"Planet Telex"

Radiohead wrote and recorded "Planet Telex" in a single session at RAK Studios while working on The Bends. It developed from experiments with a drum loop taken from another song, the B-side "Killer Cars", to which Radiohead added piano processed with multiple delay effects. The band had recently returned from a restaurant, and Yorke recorded his vocals drunk, slumped in a corner. According to the producer, John Leckie, "We had the whole thing down within a couple of hours, which was really refreshing and fun to do." [8] The original title was "Planet Xerox", but Radiohead were denied permission to use the Xerox trademark. [8]

Music videos

The first music video for "High and Dry" featured Radiohead performing at the Vasquez Rocks outside Los Angeles. [8] For the American market, Radiohead's American record label, Capitol, commissioned a new video inspired by the 1994 film Pulp Fiction , set in a roadside diner. After MTV objected, the video was edited to remove a shot of an exploding car. [8]

Critical reception

Pete Stanton from Smash Hits gave "High and Dry" four out of five, writing: "It has a Suede-ish vibe to it, minus the whining, and is a mellow-but-not-boring track." [9] In 2017, Pitchfork credited "High and Dry" and another Bends song, "Fake Plastic Trees", for influencing the "airbrushed" post-Britpop of Coldplay and Travis. [10] The Irish Times said that "High and Dry" had "essentially invented Coldplay". [11]

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

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [23] 2× Platinum160,000‡
Italy (FIMI) [24]
sales since 2009 		Gold35,000‡
New Zealand (RMNZ) [25] Platinum30,000‡
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [26] Gold30,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI) [27] Platinum600,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ↑ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week . 25 February 1995. p. 43. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  2. ↑ Partridge, Kenneth (13 March 2015). "Radiohead's 'The Bends' at 20: Classic Track-By-Track Review". Billboard . Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  3. ↑ Barker, Emily (26 January 2015). "30 Albums That Made 1995 A Vintage Year For Music". NME . Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  4. ↑ "Rare Footage Surfaces of Thom Yorke Performing "High and Dry" With Pre-Radiohead Band". Pitchfork . 13 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  5. 1 2 Bambarger, Bradley (17 February 1996). "The Modern Age". Billboard .
  6. 1 2 Randall, Mac (15 May 2015). "Radiohead's 'The Bends,' 20 Years Later: Reexamining a Modern Rock Masterpiece". Guitar World . Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  7. ↑ Plagenhoef, Scott (16 August 2006). "Pitchfork: Interviews: Thom Yorke". Pitchfork . Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Randall, Mac (1 February 2012). Exit Music: The Radiohead Story Updated Edition. Backbeat Books. ISBN   978-1-4584-7147-5.
  9. ↑ Stanton, Pete (1 March 1995). "New Singles". Smash Hits . p. 53. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
  10. ↑ "The 50 Best Britpop Albums". Pitchfork . 29 March 2017. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 228.
  13. ↑ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 2933." RPM . Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  14. ↑ "Top RPM Rock/Alternative Tracks: Issue 9200." RPM . Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  15. ↑ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media . Vol. 12, no. 11. 18 March 1995. p. 27. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  16. ↑ "Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 (15.4. '95 – 21.4. '95)". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 12 April 1995. p. 62. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  17. ↑ "Radiohead – High and Dry". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  18. ↑ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  19. ↑ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  20. ↑ "Radiohead Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  21. ↑ "Radiohead Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  22. ↑ "Canada's Top 200 Singles of 2001". Jam!. Archived from the original on 26 July 2002. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  23. ↑ "Canadian single certifications – Radiohead – High and Dry". Music Canada . Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  24. ↑ "Italian single certifications – Radiohead – High and Dry" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana . Retrieved 2 November 2021. Select "2021" in the "Anno" drop-down menu. Type "High and Dry" in the "Filtra" field. Select "Singoli" under "Sezione".
  25. ↑ "New Zealand single certifications – Radiohead – High and Dry". Recorded Music NZ . Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  26. ↑ "Spanish single certifications – Radiohead – High and Dry". El portal de Música. Productores de Música de España . Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  27. ↑ "British single certifications – Radiohead – High & Dry". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 21 November 2024.