Ongoing History Daily: Radiohead’s plagiastic gaffe

Some of the guys in Radiohead have hated their song “Creep” since they recorded it in 1992. Yes, it was the band’s breakthrough single, but they don’t like playing it—and they don’t make as much money as they thought they would from it.

Shortly after “Creep” was released as a single in the fall of ’92, some pointed out that it had eerie melodic similarities and construction to a 1972 song by The Hollies called “The Air That I Breathe.”

There was a lawsuit, it went to court, and a jury agreed. Since then, a piece of the royalties for “Creep” has gone to writers Mike Hazelwood and Albert Hammond Sr. By the way, that Albert Hammond is the father of Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes.

Compare the two songs.