# Fake Plastic Trees

"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

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". 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."

## Recording

Radiohead recorded "Fake Plastic Trees" for their second album, The Bends, in 1994 at RAK Studios, London, with the producer John Leckie. 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". 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".
One evening, Radiohead attended a concert by the American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley at the Garage, London. Yorke later said that Buckley gave him the confidence to sing in falsetto, and Leckie said: "It made [Thom] realise you could sing in a falsetto without sounding dripping." Inspired by Buckley, Yorke recorded a performance of "Fake Plastic Trees" alone on acoustic guitar. According to the bassist, Colin Greenwood, Yorke played three takes, then burst into tears.
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."

## Reception

Reviewing The Bends, the European magazine Music & Media wrote that "Fake Plastic Trees" "best illustrates [Radiohead's] ambitions". Writing for NME in May 1995, John Mulvey felt that it lacked substance. Both magazines drew comparisons with the rock band U2. 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."
In 2003, Rolling Stone included "Fake Plastic Trees" at number 385 on its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. 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". In 2009, "Fake Plastic Trees" was voted the 28th-best song on the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time list.
An acoustic version was used in the 1995 film Clueless and introduced Radiohead to a larger American audience. In 2017, Pitchfork credited "Fake Plastic Trees" and another Bends song, "High and Dry", for influencing the "airbrushed" post-Britpop of Coldplay and Travis. It has been covered by the singers Hayley Williams and Vance Joy.

## Track listings

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

## Personnel

Radiohead
* Thom Yorke – vocals, acoustic guitar, string arrangements
* Jonny Greenwood – electric guitar, Hammond organ, string arrangements
* Ed O'Brien – electric guitar
* Colin Greenwood – bass
* Philip Selway – drums
Additional performers
* Caroline Lavelle – cello
* John Matthias – viola, violin

## Certifications

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| Canada (Music Canada) | Platinum | 80,000$^‡$ |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Gold | 400,000$^‡$ |
| $^‡$ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |||