Radiohead have seen their 1997 single ‘Let Down’ enter the charts, 28 years years after it’s release.
Irrespective of your stance on the current social media landscape, and TikTok in particular, it is undeniable that these platforms are the reason we are seeing so many songs from decades gone by get an untimely commercial revival, and Radiohead are the latest group to reap the rewards of this.
Released in 1997 on Radiohead’s third studio album, OK Computer, ‘Let Down’ received only one chart position at the time, the 29th position on the US Billboard ‘Modern Rock Tracks’ chart.
That was until the song was used in a vast number of videos on social media, catapulting the song’s streaming figures through the roof and earning the number eighty five spot in this week’s UK Singles Chart – one of the charts the song failed to appear on previously.
That’s not the only success ‘Let Down’ saw this week; notably, the single also reached number 5 on the ‘UK Indie Charts’, 83 on the ‘Canadian Hot 100’ and 18 on US Billboard’s ‘Bubbling Under Hot 100’, meaning that the band narrowly missed out on a place in the prestigious ‘Hot 100’.
Despite the single hitting charts across the world, ‘Let Down’ has been a song Radiohead have typically shied away from performing live. The multi-track recording techniques and heavy layering used in the studio make it difficult for singer, Thom Yorke, to perpetuate the soaring harmonies heard on the recorded version. A single performance in 2006 was all fans had to go on until the band decided to bring the song out of retirement on their 2016, A Moon Shaped Pool, tour.
Many different artists have witnessed a surge in popularity for specific songs within their discography, as a result of social media trends. One of the most dramatic examples in recent years was Kate Bush’s 1985 hit ‘Running Up That Hill’, which saw an enormous spike in popularity when it was used in TV series ‘Stranger Things’, which, consequently, lead to a myriad of social media posts containing the song. The song grew in popularity so much so that it surpassed many of its previous chart positions.
