Radiohead had not planned to release "Creep", and recorded it at the suggestion of the producers, Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, while they were working on other songs.

It was reissued in 1993 and became an international hit, likened to alt-rock "slacker anthems" such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana and "Loser" by Beck.

Radiohead departed from the style of "Creep" and grew weary of it, feeling it set narrow expectations of their music, and did not perform it for several years.

[6] Between rehearsals, Radiohead spontaneously performed another song, "Creep", which the singer, Thom Yorke, had written at the University of Exeter in the late 1980s.

[4] Greenwood said the lyrics were inspired by a woman who Yorke had "followed for a couple of days", and who unexpectedly attended a Radiohead performance.

Radiohead worried that issuing a censored version would be selling out, but decided it was acceptable since their idols Sonic Youth had done the same thing; nonetheless, Greenwood said the British press "weren't impressed".

When the guitarist Ed O'Brien pointed out that the chord progression was the same as the 1972 song "The Air That I Breathe", Yorke wrote a new middle eight using the same vocal melody.

[26] In September 1993, Radiohead performed "Creep" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as the show's first musical guests.

[33] Radiohead did not want to reissue "Creep" in the UK, but relented following pressure from the music press, EMI and fans.

[34] The reissue was released in the UK on 6 September 1993 and reached number seven, promoted with an appearance on the music programme Top of the Pops.

[8] An acoustic version of "Creep", taken from a live performance on KROQ-FM on 13 July 1993, was included on Radiohead's 1994 EP My Iron Lung.

"[41] Larry Flick of Billboard wrote: "Minimal cut, boosted with just a touch of noise, relies mainly on an appropriately languid, melodic vocal (which also vaults into Bono-esque falsetto range) to pull the whole thing together.

"[42] Troy J. Augusto from Cash Box described it as a song "for all those of the post-pimple set who just can't find their way in this big ol' world.

"[43] Marisa Fox of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Creep" was "the ultimate neurotic teen anthem", marrying the self-consciousness of the Smiths, the vocals and guitar of U2, and the "heavy but crunchy pop" of the Cure.

[48] Tom Doyle from Smash Hits also gave it four out of five and named it Best New Single, praising the lyrics, "crunching guitar" and "delirious" chorus.

[49] Edwin Pouncey of NME named "Creep" Reissue of the Week and wrote that it had "clout, class and truth proudly branded on its forearm".

[52] In 2020, Rolling Stone named it the 16th-greatest debut single; the journalist Andy Greene noted that though Radiohead had followed "Creep" with "some of the most innovative and acclaimed music of the past 30 years", it remained their most famous song.

[54][55] Following the release of Pablo Honey, Radiohead spent two years touring in support of Belly, PJ Harvey and James.

[23] The album title, a term for decompression sickness, references Radiohead's rapid rise to fame with "Creep"; Yorke said "we just came up too fast".

[57] John Leckie, who produced The Bends, recalled that EMI hoped for a single "even better" than "Creep" but that Radiohead "didn't even know what was good about it in the first place".

"[59] In January 1996, Radiohead surpassed the UK chart performance of "Creep" with the Bends single "Street Spirit", which reached number five.

[20] During the promotion for their third album, OK Computer (1997), Yorke became hostile when "Creep" was mentioned in interviews and refused requests to play it, telling a Montréal audience: "Fuck off, we're tired of it.

[20] According to the Guardian critic Alexis Petridis, "Given Radiohead's famously fractious relationship with their first big hit ... the performance of 'Creep' [was] greeted with something approaching astonished delight.

"[20] In 2020, the Guardian critic Jazz Monroe wrote: "In the end, the band's disavowal of the song sent its credibility full circle.

[70] Yorke contributed the remix to a show by the Japanese fashion designer Jun Takahashi, who provided artwork and an animated music video.

[72] Rolling Stone said it was a fitting track for the COVID-19 pandemic, when "a sense of time is warped and singular moments can seem both fleeting and drawn out simultaneously".

[79] That November, the Australian musician Elly-May Barnes released a cover "Creep" as her first solo single, from her debut album, No Good.

[80] Other artists who have covered "Creep" include Postmodern Jukebox,[81] Korn,[82] Weezer,[82] Damien Rice,[82] Amanda Palmer,[82] Moby,[82] the Pretenders,[82] Kelly Clarkson,[82] Arlo Parks,[83] Olivia Rodrigo,[84] and Ernest.

[85] The chord progression and melody in "Creep" are similar to those of the 1972 song "The Air That I Breathe", written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.

[86] After Rondor Music, the publisher of "The Air That I Breathe", took legal action, Hammond and Hazlewood received cowriting credits and a percentage of the royalties.