Creep is the most popular song of the English rock band Radiohead, although the band has several albums and numerous songs, there is not any other song that is more impactful or famous than Creep. However, although fans love the song very much, it seems that the band does not like the song much in fact they really hate this song.
First of all, many people were only talking about Creep even though they have several other amazing songs and albums. Furthermore, the frontman and vocalist of the band Thom Yorke also revealed back in 1993 that he thought the lyrics were crappy and he was not happy about it.
However, the real reason why they don’t like the song seems to be because it exactly is not their song but it is a rip-off of a song from the early 70s.
Did Radiohead copy Creep from the 70s song?
Although Radiohead and Creep have a complicated relationship, it got messier after the concern of copyright violation. There were also people who claimed that Creep is not even Radiohead’s song because it has the exact same melody and chord progression as the song “The Air That I Breathe,” by Albert Hammond Sr. and Mike Hazelwood.
The song was a part of The Hollies’ 14th UK studio album Hollies which was released in 1974. However, before its release in 1974, it was released by Albert Hammond in his debut album It Never Rains in Southern California in 1972.
And because Radiohead’s Creep sounded exactly the same, the publisher of the song The Air That I Breath, Rondor Music sued Radiohead for copyright. And according to Hammond, Radiohead agreed that they copied the song and their honesty made Hammond really happy so he decided to take only a small amount of royalties from their song Creep. He said, “The publisher of the song, Rondor Music, felt [‘Creep’] was a steal from ‘The Air That I Breathe’, and he sued Radiohead, and they agreed. 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.”
Interestingly enough Radiohead also took legal action against Lana Del Ray after her song “Get Free” from the Lust for Life album sounded like Creep. However, according to Lana, she did not copy the song however, even if she was not inspired by the song, Radiohead feel she was.
Lana Del Rey reveals Radiohead is suing her and want 100% of the publishing rights. They feel like Lust For Life’ album track "Get Free" copied their 1993 hit "Creep." pic.twitter.com/7ao54byGCE
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 7, 2018
She tweeted that she was ready to pay 40% to resolve this matter but Radiohead did not agree and demanded 100% of her publishing. She wrote, “It’s true about the lawsuit. Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by Creep, Radiohead feel it was and want 100% of the publishing-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.”
However, Creep itself was a rip-off from Hammond and Hazelwood’s song The Air That I Breathe, so many fans are concerned and worried that this song’s publisher might sue Lana too.
