# High and Dry / Planet Telex
**High and Dry / Planet Telex** is a double A-side single by the English rock band [Radiohead](https://www.edgepedia.org/radiohead), released on [Parlophone](https://www.edgepedia.org/parlophone) on 27 February 1995 as the first single from their second album *The Bends*. It paired "High and Dry", a melodic, mid-tempo acoustic-rock song written years before the album, with "Planet Telex", the distorted, keyboard-driven track that opens the record, and reached number 17 on the UK Official Singles Chart.[1](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/radiohead-high-dryplanet-telex/) • [2](https://www.loudersound.com/music/the-classic-radiohead-song-the-band-have-distanced-themselves-from) • [3](https://nosuchlibrary.com/the-bends/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artist / album | Radiohead, first single from *The Bends* (1995)[2](https://www.loudersound.com/music/the-classic-radiohead-song-the-band-have-distanced-themselves-from) |
| Format | Double A-side: "High and Dry" and "Planet Telex" (4:19)[2](https://www.loudersound.com/music/the-classic-radiohead-song-the-band-have-distanced-themselves-from) • [4](https://www.namu.moe/w/High%20and%20Dry) |
| UK chart | Peak position 17; first chart date 11 March 1995; four weeks on the chart; Parlophone, catalog number CDR6405[1](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/radiohead-high-dryplanet-telex/) |
| Release date | 27 February 1995[3](https://nosuchlibrary.com/the-bends/) |
| Production | "High and Dry" produced by Radiohead and Jim Warren, mixed by Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade; "Planet Telex" produced by John Leckie, engineered by Nigel Godrich[3](https://nosuchlibrary.com/the-bends/) |
| Origins | "High and Dry" written years before the album during the On A Friday hiatus; "Planet Telex" written late in the 1994 sessions[2](https://www.loudersound.com/music/the-classic-radiohead-song-the-band-have-distanced-themselves-from) • [5](https://music.apple.com/us/album/high-and-dry/1097862703?i=1097862833) |
| Later standing | Yorke said in 2007 that including "High and Dry" was a record-company demand, and the band rarely plays it live[6](https://www.nporadio2.nl/nieuws/npo-radio-2/593002d6-df59-4c1d-8d24-912af98c0b5b/bijna-weggegooide-hit) |
## Context and release
After the worldwide success of the 1992 single "Creep", Radiohead began recording *The Bends* in early 1994 under pressure to prove they were more than a one-hit band. The stop-and-start sessions stretched across much of 1994 as the band searched for songs and sounds that would not pigeonhole them.[5](https://music.apple.com/us/album/high-and-dry/1097862703?i=1097862833) "Planet Telex" was recorded between February and November 1994 at [Abbey Road Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/abbey-road-studios) and RSK in London and The Manor in [Oxfordshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/oxfordshire).[7](https://musicbrainz.org/release/8af759be-1495-4cc4-85a7-47edc21fa348) The album was produced by John Leckie and engineered by [Nigel Godrich](https://www.edgepedia.org/nigel-godrich), who went on to produce the band's subsequent albums.[8](https://www.musicomh.com/features/spotlights/radiohead-the-bends)
The single went out as a double A-side on 27 February 1995.[3](https://nosuchlibrary.com/the-bends/) According to the *Louder / Classic Rock* account, the band "played it safe" by leading with the more melodic "High and Dry", and it was clear which of the two songs would get more radio airtime.[2](https://www.loudersound.com/music/the-classic-radiohead-song-the-band-have-distanced-themselves-from) On the UK chart it entered at its number 17 peak on 11 March 1995 and spent four weeks on the chart, falling to 28, then 49, then 75.[1](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/radiohead-high-dryplanet-telex/) In New Zealand, "High And Dry" reached number 22 in April 1995.[9](https://www.charts.nz/showitem.asp?cat=s&interpret=Radiohead&titel=Planet+Telex)
## The two songs
**High and Dry.** Thom Yorke, the band's frontman and chief songwriter, wrote the song years before *The Bends*, while the group's early incarnation, then called On A Friday, was on hiatus because several members had gone to university. A slower version was recorded for the 1993 debut *[Pablo Honey](https://www.edgepedia.org/pablo-honey)*, but the band felt the result sounded too much like [Rod Stewart](https://www.edgepedia.org/rod-stewart) and set it aside.[2](https://www.loudersound.com/music/the-classic-radiohead-song-the-band-have-distanced-themselves-from) • [6](https://www.nporadio2.nl/nieuws/npo-radio-2/593002d6-df59-4c1d-8d24-912af98c0b5b/bijna-weggegooide-hit) The song had already appeared on the *[My Iron Lung](https://www.edgepedia.org/my-iron-lung)* EP a year before *The Bends* was released.[10](https://eprints.uny.ac.id/19334/1/Azzan%20Wafiq%20Agnurhasta%2008211141012.pdf) During *The Bends* sessions the demo was revived and remixed rather than newly arranged, so the album version is essentially a refreshed demo recording.[6](https://www.nporadio2.nl/nieuws/npo-radio-2/593002d6-df59-4c1d-8d24-912af98c0b5b/bijna-weggegooide-hit) It was produced by Radiohead with Jim Warren and mixed by Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade.[3](https://nosuchlibrary.com/the-bends/) Its promo video was directed by David Mould.[11](https://treefingers.com/news/1995/caleta-peru-the-bends-review/)
Yorke's later position on the song was blunt. In a 2007 interview he said that putting it on the album was an insistence of the label Parlophone, that the label "kept him in a headlock" over it, and that "it's not a bad song. It's a very, very bad song." Radiohead has played "High & Dry" live only rarely since.[6](https://www.nporadio2.nl/nieuws/npo-radio-2/593002d6-df59-4c1d-8d24-912af98c0b5b/bijna-weggegooide-hit)
**Planet Telex.** Written late in the album process, this song opens *The Bends*. Apple Music's album notes describe its delayed pianos and wafting guitar chords as new textures for the band, with Yorke's vocals carrying a frustrated urgency that signaled Radiohead was not aiming for another "Creep".[5](https://music.apple.com/us/album/high-and-dry/1097862703?i=1097862833) A study of the album notes the keyboards in its intro, treated with a heavy space echo effect, as an early example of the keyboard use that became a standard element of Radiohead's instrumentation.[12](https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/33373c46-03bc-44b3-bbb0-be947bb2c8cc/1/Ehmann.pdf) Its production is credited to John Leckie with engineering by Nigel Godrich.[3](https://nosuchlibrary.com/the-bends/) The recording session itself was disordered: NME reported that the band recorded the song through an almighty hangover, with Yorke singing sprawled on the floor trying not to be sick.[13](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/New-Musical-Express/2015/NME-2015-03-07.pdf) The fraught recording process is summed up, in a retrospective feature, by the song's opening lyric, "You can force it but it will not come".[8](https://www.musicomh.com/features/spotlights/radiohead-the-bends)
## Remixes and B-sides
The single editions carried dance-oriented remixes of "Planet Telex": the Hexadecimal Mix, remixed by Steve Osborne for 140db, and the LFO DJ Mix, remixed by LFO. B-sides included "Maquiladora", produced and mixed by John Leckie, and "Killer Cars", produced by Leckie and engineered by Godrich.[3](https://nosuchlibrary.com/the-bends/) A standalone "High & Dry" digital release later paired the song with three previously unreleased B-sides and a live version of "Just".[14](https://www.allmusic.com/album/release/high-dry-mr0003202529)
## Reception and legacy
Contemporary reviewers treated the pairing as a statement of range. *Hot Press* praised the contrast between the acoustic-based "High and Dry", which it said should help bury the one-hit-wonder label earned by "Creep", and the grungier, dirtier "Planet Telex".[15](https://www.hotpress.com/music/planet-telex-high-and-dry-509511) A retrospective commentary noted that "Planet Telex", released as a split single with "High and Dry", pointed toward the future, toward the feedback of *OK Computer* and the synthetic frigidness of *Kid A*.[16](https://www.musicmusingsandsuch.com/musicmusingsandsuch/2025/1/15/feature-nice-dream-radioheads-the-bends-at-thirty) "Planet Telex" returned to Radiohead's setlist on the second night of the band's 2025 reunion tour, alongside other *The Bends* songs.[17](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/shows-festivals/everything-in-its-right-place-radiohead-switch-up-their-setlist-on-the-second-night-of-reunion-tour)
## References
1. [High & Dry/Planet Telex – Radiohead, Official Charts Company](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/radiohead-high-dryplanet-telex/)
2. ["It was too Rod Stewart." The huge Radiohead song the band have distanced themselves from, Louder / Classic Rock](https://www.loudersound.com/music/the-classic-radiohead-song-the-band-have-distanced-themselves-from)
3. [The Bends credits, Nosuch Library](https://nosuchlibrary.com/the-bends/)
4. [High and Dry, Namu wiki](https://www.namu.moe/w/High%20and%20Dry)
5. [The Bends – album notes, Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/high-and-dry/1097862703?i=1097862833)
6. [Bijna weggegooide hit, NPO Radio 2](https://www.nporadio2.nl/nieuws/npo-radio-2/593002d6-df59-4c1d-8d24-912af98c0b5b/bijna-weggegooide-hit)
7. [Release "The Bends" by Radiohead, MusicBrainz](https://musicbrainz.org/release/8af759be-1495-4cc4-85a7-47edc21fa348)
8. [Spotlight: Radiohead's The Bends at 20, musicOMH](https://www.musicomh.com/features/spotlights/radiohead-the-bends)
9. [Radiohead – Planet Telex, charts.org.nz](https://www.charts.nz/showitem.asp?cat=s&interpret=Radiohead&titel=Planet+Telex)
10. [Azzan Wafiq Agnurhasta, undergraduate thesis, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta](https://eprints.uny.ac.id/19334/1/Azzan%20Wafiq%20Agnurhasta%2008211141012.pdf)
11. [Peruvian zine Caleta finds Radiohead's The Bends good but not enough, Treefingers](https://treefingers.com/news/1995/caleta-peru-the-bends-review/)
12. [Keyboards and studio experimentation in The Bends and OK Computer, Oxford Brookes repository](https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/33373c46-03bc-44b3-bbb0-be947bb2c8cc/1/Ehmann.pdf)
13. [NME, 7 March 2015, WorldRadioHistory archive](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/New-Musical-Express/2015/NME-2015-03-07.pdf)
14. [High & Dry – Radiohead, release info, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/release/high-dry-mr0003202529)
15. [Planet Telex / High And Dry, Hot Press](https://www.hotpress.com/music/planet-telex-high-and-dry-509511)
16. [(Nice Dream): Radiohead's The Bends at Thirty, Music Musings & Such](https://www.musicmusingsandsuch.com/musicmusingsandsuch/2025/1/15/feature-nice-dream-radioheads-the-bends-at-thirty)
17. [Radiohead switch up their setlist on the second night of reunion tour, MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/shows-festivals/everything-in-its-right-place-radiohead-switch-up-their-setlist-on-the-second-night-of-reunion-tour)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Singles as releases*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license