Radiohead first performed "I Promise" on 27 March 1996 at the Fillmore in San Francisco,[1] and played it several times that year while touring in support of Alanis Morissette.
The songwriter, Thom Yorke, told the crowd: "What a bunch of nutters we were, and probably still are ... One of the crazy things we did was not release this song, because we didn't think it was good enough.
[3][9][10] Robin Hilton of NPR interpreted the video as a reference to the isolation and gruelling schedule Yorke experienced on the OK Computer tour.
The critic Marc Hogan wrote that, unlike the "technological lyrical themes and gloomy production" of OK Computer, it was similar to Radiohead's earlier album The Bends and "stunning all the same".
He speculated that, had Radiohead released it in 1997, it "might've been inescapable in dorm rooms, at open mic nights, and wherever else sensitive guys with guitars are found".