In the new horror movie Heretic, Hugh Grant’s character Mr. Reed plays the Hollies’ 1974 hit single “The Air That I Breathe,” and tells his chosen victims Barnes and Paxton (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) that, while they may not recognize the song, they’ll likely remember Radiohead’s 1992 hit “Creep.”
He goes on to mention Lana Del Rey too – and for music geeks, it’s an entertaining reference to legal arguments over songwriting credits, which plays well against the movie’s theme of the desire to control. Because while “Creep” is a song about the same notion, a pair of legal battles over the song also addressed the concept of ownership.
“The Air That I Breathe” was the Hollies’ final hit on release in 1974, reaching No.50 in the U.S. and No.2 in the U.K. Written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, it first appeared on Hammond’s debut album It Never Rains in Southern California in 1972, before being covered by Phil Everly in 1973.
READ MORE: Why Radiohead’s “Creep” Was Initially a Failure
Fast-forward to 1992, and Radiohead were playing mind games while working on what would be their own debut album, Pablo Honey. Frontman Thom Yorke had written “Creep” while at college, and as his bandmates worked on the music, a section of “The Air That I Breathe” was deliberately put in. Guitarist Ed O’Brien is purported to have pointed out the similarity in the music they’d been developing, and Jonny Greenwood’s response was to replicate the 1972 construction perfectly during one section, making a sarcastic musical point.
Watch the Hollies Perform ‘The Air That I Breathe’
That wouldn’t have been a problem had the track been left out of their recording sessions, as they band expected. But their producers, Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, sensed a hit. Yorke had light-heartedly described “Creep” as the band’s Scott Walker song, leading Slade to think it was a cover version – and on discovering it wasn’t, the band were encouraged to perform it in the studio, not even knowing they were being recorded; an easy trick since the producers were known for preferring a live approach to tracking records.
The recording went up the ladder at EMI, with Kolderie’s recommendation that it should be released as a single. With positive responses from the label, that’s what happened. Radiohead’s control over their output was limited, their position remaining uncertain after the failure of their first EP – but with the decision taken out of their hands, things didn’t improve when “Creep” only reached No.78, as the all-powerful BBC refused to playlist it due to its depressing tone.
READ MORE: When Radiohead Imitated Their Heroes on Pablo Honey
Gradually things changed. “Creep” became an underground hit in Israel, then New Zealand and parts of Europe, and finally the U.S. embraced it as a slacker anthem like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It reached No.7 on its re-released in the U.K., and secured cool status when it appeared on Beavis & Butt-Head in 1994 – leading the band’s American label, Capital, to promote them using the line “Beavis and Butt-Head say they don’t suck.”
Eventually the song reached the ears of Rondor Music, publishers of Hammond and Hazlewood’s “The Air That I Breathe.” A copyright infringement claim was initiated; and given that Radiohead had always been up-front about having referred to the older song, it was more or less a foregone conclusion. In an out-of-court settlement the older pair were granted co-writing credits on the song.
Watch Radiohead Perform ‘Creep’
Lost In Music’s analysis of the legal case noted that one note in the second chord of a four-chord sequence introduced a note alien to the key in which the song is written. “G#… jars against the G natural which is heard in the chord of C major and creates surprise,” the report stated. As a result, “or one eight-bar phrase the melody of ‘Creep’ appears to imitate the melody of ‘The Air That I Breathe.’ This occurs at the words ‘she’s running out the door again’ in Creep, and can’t be coincidence.”
“I don’t publish ‘The Air that I Breathe;’ I only own the writer’s end,” Hammond – father of the Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr. – said of his involvement in 2002. “[W]hen the song ‘Creep’ came out, [the publisher] felt it was a steal… and he sued Radiohead, and they agreed. Radiohead agreed that they had actually taken it from ‘The Air That I Breathe.’ Because they were honest they weren’t sued to the point of saying, ‘We want the whole thing.’ So we ended up just getting a little piece of it.”
Why Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ Got Legal for a Second Time
But “Creep” had more business to offer the legal trade. In 2018, Radiohead’s reps sued Del Rey over her song “Get Free,” pointing out obvious similarities with their 1992 release. “Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by ‘Creep,’ Radiohead feel it was and want 100% of the publishing,” she wrote on social media. “I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court.”
Radiohead said the percentage claims weren’t accurate, but that Del Rey had been approached and discussions were underway. The result of the dispute was never publicized, but later that year she performed “Get Free” at a festival and then told the crowd: “Now that my lawsuit’s over, I guess I can sing that song any time I want, right?”
Watch Lana Del Rey Perform ‘Get Free’
Over time Radiohead created some distance between themselves and “Creep.” They’d never had an entirely comfortable relationship with it – perhaps because of those control issues regarding its release, its reception and its continued influence over how their work has been perceived.
In 1992 Yorke said he was against the idea of re-releasing the single, after having felt “horribly gutted, pissed off, self-righteous” at the original’s failure. But he argued: “There are good and bad things to it though. A lot of people are asking ‘why isn’t it a hit?’ That’s a good thing. It stands us in good stead.”
After he’d taken heat for admitting the song was about a real-life women he’d had a months-long obsession with (who’s said to have later attended a Radiohead show), he reflected: “The way I write lyrics is just to ramble away for ages and ages… that was the ramble I came up with and I just kept using it – and it fits rhythmically really well.
“The song goes along and then you have that ‘fucking’ thing and then you have Jon’s ‘ker-runch’ [guitar] thing come in, and the song is like slashing its wrists. Halfway through the song it suddenly starts killing itself off, which is the whole point of the song, really. It’s a real self-destruct song.”
Watch a Trailer for ‘Heretic’
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Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky