Radiohead have broken into the American charts with a single from OK Computer that was released 28 years ago

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By ( Louder ) published

It looks like Gen Z have discovered OK Computer

Radiohead

Radiohead have scored their first 'hit' on America's Billboard Hot 100 chart in 17 years, with a single released 28 years ago.

Although Thom Yorke's band have scored no fewer than seven Top 10 singles in the UK, they've never even had a Top 30 single in the US, their highest-charting song on the Billboard Hot 100, Creep, peaking at number 34 back in 1993.

In fact, until this week, the quintet had managed to break into the Hot 100 chart on only two further occasions, with High And Dry (from 1995's The Bends) reaching number 78 in 1996, and Nude (from 2007's In Rainbows) reaching the giddy heights of number 37 in 2008.

Now, 17 years on, Radiohead are back, back, back, crashing into the Hot 100 - at number 91 - this week with Let Me Down, from OK Computer, released as the album's third single back in September 1997.

There is no single defining explanation for this unexpected bump in the song's fortunes, but apparently it has been gaining traction on TikTok, where Gen Z youth with an over-inflated sense of their own Main Character Energy have been using it to soundtrack micro-dramas real and imagined.

What a time to be alive.

Let Down (Remastered) - YouTube Let Down (Remastered) - YouTube
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Radiohead haven’t released a new album since 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, but earlier this month Tom Yorke's band released the live album Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009), featuring songs from their 2003 album Hail To The Thief taped at shows in London, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires and Dublin between 2003 and 2009

Paul Brannigan
Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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