There There (song)

Radiohead worked on "There, There" during the sessions for their fourth album, Kid A (2000). They recorded it for their sixth album, Hail to the Thief, with their longtime producer, Nigel Godrich. They recorded a version at Ocean Way in Los Angeles in 2002, but were not satisfied with the results. According to the guitarist Jonny Greenwood, "Sometimes it doesn't work at all, because you haven't got the real volume of a live concert ... That just doesn't really work coming out of speakers in your front room ... It just sounded a bit like we were trying to make a worthy 'live band playing together' recording." The singer, Thom Yorke, feared Radiohead had lost the song. ==Composition==

"There, There" is a rock song with layered percussion that builds to a loud climax. It was influenced by Can, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Pixies. Yorke said the lyrics were "supposed to be comforting — 'It's alright, you're just imagining it.'" ==Music video==

Yorke asked Oliver Postgate, the creator of Bagpuss, to create the music video for "There, There", but Postgate declined as he was retired. Yorke instructed him to make a video similar to the folk tales of the Brothers Grimm and the Czech animator Jan Švankmajer. Hopewell described it as "fifties East European genre animation, overlaboured and naive". In 2020, Greenwood said it was Radiohead's best video. In the video, Yorke enters a forest and walks around a town consisting entirely of animals. He sees numerous events play out, such as a wedding, and finds a golden jacket and a pair of golden boots. He puts them on, awakening a group of crows, who chase and attack him. The boots give Yorke super speed, but the effect wears off when the crows fly away and his feet are trapped by growing vines. He breaks free, but the boots fall off. His feet become tree roots, and Yorke becomes a tree. The crows rest on the branches. ==Reception==

"There, There" was released as the lead single from Hail to the Thief on 21 May 2003.'''' The single reached number four on the UK singles chart and number one in Canada. It also received airplay on US modern rock stations, reaching number fourteen on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The music video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction at the 2003 MTV Video Awards. In 2020, the Guardian named "There, There" the 27th-greatest Radiohead song, writing that its "hooks and arrangement were deceptively crafty ... making its turbulent climax hard to shake". In 2025, Rolling Stone named it the 196th-greatest song of the 21st century so far. The editor Rob Sheffield wrote that "for some of us 'There, There' will always be the definitive Radiohead classic, the song you'd play for a visiting Martian who asked what this band was all about". ==Track listings==

Standard CD and 12-inch single • "There, There" – 5:24 • "Paperbag Writer" – 3:58 • "Where Bluebirds Fly" – 4:31 ==Personnel==

Radiohead • Thom Yorke • Jonny Greenwood • Colin Greenwood • Ed O'Brien • Philip Selway Additional personnel • Nigel Godrich – production • Darrell Thorp – engineering • Stanley Donwood – artwork ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Release history==