Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1996
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Buy Street Spirit (Fade Out) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Street Spirit (Fade Out)
| cover = StreetSpirit.jpg
| alt =
| border = yes
| type = single
| artist = Radiohead
| album = The Bends
| released =
| B-side =
| recorded = 1994
| studio =
| genre = Post-grunge
| length =
| label = Parlophone
| writer = Radiohead
| producer = John Leckie
| prev_title = Just
| prev_year = 1995
| next_title = The Bends
| next_year = 1996
| misc =
}}
"'Street Spirit (Fade Out)'" is a song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. It is the final track on their second studio album, 'The Bends' (1995). It was released as a single on 22 January 1996 and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, Radiohead's highest position up to that point. It has been covered by acts including Peter Gabriel and the Darkness.
Composition
Songwriter Thom Yorke said "Street Spirit" was inspired by the American band R.E.M. and the 1991 novel 'The Famished Road' by Ben Okri. It features a guitar arpeggio written by Yorke and played by Ed O'Brien. In 2018, 'Pitchfork' wrote that the song "channels a sense of capitalist dread that even class-conscious Britpop artists repressed".
Music video
The music video for "Street Spirit" was filmed over two nights in a desert outside Los Angeles. It was directed by Jonathan Glazer, who described it as a "turning point" for his work. He felt that Radiohead had "found their own voices as an artist" and that "I got close to whatever mine was, and I felt confident that I could do things that emoted, that had some kind of poetic as well as prosaic value".
Release
"Street Spirit" was released on Radiohead's second album, 'The Bends' (1995)'.' It was released as a single in January 1996, and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, Radioheads highest placement up to that point. After their previous singles had failed to match the success of their 1992 debut single "Creep", "Street Spirit" demonstrated that Radiohead were not one-hit wonders. In 2008, "Street Spirit" was featured on 'Radiohead: The Best Of'.
Covers
Peter Gabriel recorded a cover of "Street Spirit" for his album 'Scratch My Back' (2010), hoping that Radiohead would record a version of his 1982 song "Wallflower" for his album 'And I'll Scratch Yours' (2013). According to Gabriel, Radiohead ceased communication after he sent his version of "Street Spirit" and backed out of the project. Gabriel said his rendition was "pretty extreme", and had since heard that the band did not like it.
In 2012, the Darkness released a cover of "Street Spirit" on their album 'Hot Cakes'. The band had included the song in their live shows in 2003. In 2020, System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan released a cover with M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine as a part of his covers project These Grey Men.
Track listing
CD 1
# "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" 4:13# "Talk Show Host" 4:41
# "Bishop's Robes" 3:25
CD 2
# "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" 4:13# "Banana Co." 2:20
# "Molasses" 2:27
Personnel
All personnel adapted from the liner notes.
'Radiohead'
* Thom Yorke
* Jonny Greenwood
* Ed O'Brien
* Colin Greenwood
* Philip Selway
'Production'
* John Leckie production "(Street Spirit", "Banana Co."), mixing "(Street Spirit"), engineering "(Street Spirit")
* Nigel Godrich production ("Talk Show Host", "Bishop's Robes", "Molasses"), engineering ("Street Spirit"), mixing ("Talk Show Host", "Molasses")
* Chris Brown engineering
* Chris Blair mastering
* Jim Warren initial production ("Banana Co.")
* Sean Slade mixing ("Banana Co.")
* Paul Q. Kolderie mixing ("Banana Co.")
'Design'
* Stanley Donwood art
* The White Chocolate Farm art
Charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
Buy Street Spirit (Fade Out) now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1996