I Fell in Love with This Tune 

I Thought It Was New – I Was Mistaken 

I’m accustomed to the digital media sites that I frequent feeding me news that appeals to my social interests and political prejudices. Likewise, with book recommendations from Amazon and movie recommendations from Netflix. Figuring out my preferences based on past consumption doesn’t seem all that difficult to do. But my taste in music is very diverse and esoteric. So I was surprised when YouTube directed me to a song that I’d never heard before, but liked very much.

The song was featured in one of those bits where a guitarist stands somewhere in public and asks passersby if they want to sing. In this particular one, set in a subway station, the passerby looked like he might have been a bookkeeper or high school science teacher.

Watch it here.

The song he sang hooked me. The melody is beautiful in a haunting, rock-opera-ish sort of way. The structure is complex, as if a serious composer were behind it. But the lyrics are juvenile – almost purposefully juvenile.

I couldn’t quite figure it out. I played it once or twice more that day, and then, as happens with algorithms, versions of the song began following me around YouTube. Each version was different than the previous one, but they all held me.

Here, for example, is an opera singer taking a shot at it.

And here is a very soulful version by some guy competing in a televised singing contest.

And here’s a guy – who is probably well-known by now – doing an amazing version on American Idol. (Start at minute 3.0.)

I finally tracked down the original. The song – Creep – was the 1992 debut single by the English rock band Radiohead. (The band’s frontman, Thom Yorke, wrote the lyrics.) Click here to watch them perform it.