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Fake Plastic Trees

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"Fake Plastic Trees"
Single by Radiohead
from the album The Bends
B-side
  • "India Rubber"
  • "How Can You Be Sure?"
Released15 May 1995 (1995-5-15)[1]
Recorded1994
StudioRAK, London
Genre
Length4:52
LabelParlophone
Songwriter(s)Radiohead
Producer(s)John Leckie
Radiohead singles chronology
"High and Dry" / "Planet Telex"
(1995) 		"Fake Plastic Trees"
(1995) 		"Just"
(1995)
Audio sample

"Fake Plastic Trees" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released in May 1995 by Parlophone from their second album, The Bends (1995). It was the third single from The Bends in the UK, and the first in the US.

Radiohead recorded "Fake Plastic Trees" at RAK Studios, London, with the producer John Leckie. They struggled to settle on an arrangement, and dismissed one version as "pompous and bombastic". The final version was influenced by the American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley.

"Fake Plastic Trees" reached the top 50 on the UK singles chart, the New Zealand Singles Chart, the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and the Canadian Rock/Alternative chart. In 2003, Rolling Stone included "Fake Plastic Trees" at number 385 on its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.

Writing

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Thom Yorke, Radiohead's songwriter, said "Fake Plastic Trees" was "the product of a joke that wasn't really a joke, a very lonely, drunken evening and, well, a breakdown of sorts".[6] He said the song arose from a melody he had "no idea what to do with". He did not take his usual approach of keeping note "of whatever my head's singing at the particular moment" or forcing "some nifty phrases" he devised onto the melody, and instead "just recorded whatever was going on in my head". He said: "I wrote those words and laughed. I thought they were really funny, especially that bit about polystyrene."[7]

Recording

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Radiohead recorded "Fake Plastic Trees" for their second album, The Bends, in 1994 at RAK Studios, London, with the producer John Leckie.[8] The sessions were strained, as Radiohead were under pressure from their record label, EMI, to record a single to match the success of their debut, "Creep".[9] The guitarist Ed O'Brien likened one early version of "Fake Plastic Trees" to the Guns N' Roses song "November Rain", saying it was "pompous and bombastic ... just the worst".[10]

One evening, Radiohead attended a concert by the American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley at the Garage, London.[11] Yorke later said that Buckley gave him the confidence to sing in falsetto,[12] and Leckie said: "It made [Thom] realise you could sing in a falsetto without sounding dripping."[13] Inspired by Buckley, Yorke recorded a performance of "Fake Plastic Trees" alone on acoustic guitar.[10] According to the bassist, Colin Greenwood, Yorke played three takes, then burst into tears.[12]

Radiohead created the final version of "Fake Plastic Trees" by overdubbing their parts onto Yorke's performance. The drummer, Philip Selway, described following Yorke's fluctuating tempo: "Part of the beauty was the way it would actually slip in and out, but trying to follow it was a nightmare."[14]

Reception

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Reviewing The Bends, the European magazine Music & Media wrote that "Fake Plastic Trees" "best illustrates [Radiohead's] ambitions".[15] Writing for NME in May 1995, John Mulvey felt that it lacked substance. Both magazines drew comparisons with the rock band U2.[16] Mark Frith from Smash Hits gave "Fake Plastic Trees" two out of five, writing: "Mournfully slow and really unremarkable, this will probably only appeal to die-hard fans."[17]

In 2003, Rolling Stone included "Fake Plastic Trees" at number 385 on its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.[18] In 2011, Rolling Stone readers voted it the third-best Radiohead song, with the critic Andy Greene writing that it was "one of Radiohead's most anthemic songs".[19] In 2009, "Fake Plastic Trees" was voted the 28th-best song on the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time list.[20]

An acoustic version was used in the 1995 film Clueless and introduced Radiohead to a larger American audience.[21][19] In 2017, Pitchfork credited "Fake Plastic Trees" and another Bends song, "High and Dry", for influencing the "airbrushed" post-Britpop of Coldplay and Travis.[22] It has been covered by the singers Hayley Williams and Vance Joy.[23][24]

Track listings

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All tracks are written by Radiohead (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, Philip Selway).

Personnel

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Radiohead

Additional performers

Charts

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Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[46] Platinum 80,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[47] Gold 400,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Notes

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Same tracks appear on the two sides of the cassette tape.[27][28]
  2. ^ Noted as (single edit) on the US promo.[33]

Citations

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  1. ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 13 May 1995. p. 39. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  2. ^ Bossenger, A.T. (22 May 2016). "Greatest Hits: Radiohead". Treble. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  3. ^ "The 95 Best Alternative Rock Songs of 1995". Spin. 6 August 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  4. ^ Pan, Arnold (3 June 2022). "Between the Grooves of Radiohead's The Bends". PopMatters. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  5. ^ Shields, Michael (3 March 2015). "Twenty Years Later: Radiohead's The Bends". Across the Margin. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
  6. ^ Black, Johnny. "The Greatest Songs Ever! Fake Plastic Trees". Blender.com. 15 May 2003. Retrieved on 10 March 2010. Archived 14 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Randall, p. 158-59
  8. ^ Black, Johnny (1 June 2003), "The Greatest Songs Ever! Fake Plastic Trees", Blender, archived from the original on 9 April 2007, retrieved 15 April 2007
  9. ^ Randall, Mac (12 September 2000). Exit Music: The Radiohead Story. Delta. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-385-33393-1.
  10. ^ a b Randall, Mac (15 May 2015). "Radiohead's The Bends 20 years later: reexamining a modern rock masterpiece". Guitar World. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  11. ^ Power, Ed (15 October 2022). "How Jeff Buckley changed Radiohead's 'Fake Plastic Trees'". Far Out. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  12. ^ a b Dalton, Stephen (September 1997). "The dour and the glory". Vox. IPC Media.
  13. ^ Runtagh, Jordan (23 August 2019). "Jeff Buckley's Grace: 10 things you didn't know". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  14. ^ Wittet, T. Bruce (August 1996). "Phil Selway". Modern Drummer. David Frangioni.
  15. ^ "New Releases: Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 12, no. 13. 1 April 1995. p. 9. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  16. ^ Mulvey, John. "Review: Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees (Parlophone)". NME (20 May 1995). IPC Media: 54.
  17. ^ Frith, Mark (10 May 1995). "Singles". Smash Hits. p. 61. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  18. ^ Stone, Rolling (11 December 2003). "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  19. ^ a b Greene, Andy (12 October 2011). "Readers' poll: the 10 best Radiohead songs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  20. ^ "Countdown | Hottest 100 - Of All Time". Triple J. 19 July 2009. Archived from the original on 22 January 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  21. ^ Al, Horner; Twells, John; Lobenfeld, Claire (13 April 2016). "Radiohead on film: The 9 best uses of their songs on screen". Fact. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  22. ^ "The 50 Best Britpop Albums". Pitchfork. 29 March 2017. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  23. ^ Sose, Fuamoli (11 August 2020). "Hayley Williams serves fans an acoustic cover of Radiohead's 'Fake Plastic Trees'". Triple J. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  24. ^ "Vance Joy covers Radiohead 'Fake Plastic Trees' for Like A Version [2015]". Triple J. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  25. ^ Fake Plastic Trees (CD single liner notes). Radiohead. UK: Parlophone. 1995. CDRS 6411.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  26. ^ Fake Plastic Trees (CD single liner notes). Radiohead. Europe: Parlophone. 1995. 7243 8 82161 2 8.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  27. ^ a b Fake Plastic Trees (MC single liner notes). Radiohead. UK: Parlophone. 1995. 7243 8 82161 4 2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  28. ^ a b Fake Plastic Trees (MC single liner notes). Radiohead. New Zealand: Parlophone. 1995. 8821614.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  29. ^ Fake Plastic Trees (CD single liner notes). Radiohead. Australia: Parlophone. 1995. 8821612.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  30. ^ Fake Plastic Trees (CD single liner notes). Radiohead. UK: Parlophone. 1995. CDR 6411.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  31. ^ Fake Plastic Trees (CD single liner notes). Radiohead. Europe: Parlophone. 1995. 7243 8 82162 2 7.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  32. ^ Fake Plastic Trees (CD promo liner notes). Radiohead. UK: Parlophone. 1995. CDRDJ 6411.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  33. ^ a b Fake Plastic Trees (CD promo liner notes). Radiohead. US: Capitol. 1995. dpro-79567.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  34. ^ Fake Plastic Trees (CD single liner notes). Radiohead. US: Capitol. 1995. C2 7243 8 58424 2 9.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  35. ^ Fake Plastic Trees (7-inch vinyl jukebox single liner notes). Radiohead. US: Capitol. 1995. S7-18728.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  36. ^ Fake Plastic Trees (CD single liner notes). Radiohead. Netherlands: Parlophone. 1995. 7243 8 82203 2 3.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  37. ^ "Top RPM Rock/Alternative Tracks: Issue 9034." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  38. ^ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 12, no. 23. 10 June 1995. p. 19. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  39. ^ "Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  40. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  41. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  42. ^ "Radiohead Chart History (Radio Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  43. ^ "Radiohead Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  44. ^ "RPM Top 50 Alternative Tracks of 1995". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  45. ^ "Canada's Top 200 Singles of 2001". Jam!. Archived from the original on 26 July 2002. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  46. ^ "Canadian single certifications – Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees". Music Canada. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  47. ^ "British single certifications – Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
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