Erin Morton brought Radiohead fans to tears with her emotional R&B rendition of “Creep.” The Cincinnati musical theater student went viral for her end-of-year performance of the timeless Radiohead number, and you sure ain’t heard the English rockers done like this before. The unbelievable amount of power and soul in Morton’s voice bowled netizens over. With her touching rendition, she brought a whole new energy to “Creep,” really making the song her own.
Morton began with a gentle and dynamic verse set to a stately piano part. She’s a real master of her craft, and there are so many little details in how she approached the melody that are just brilliant. Morton really opened the taps up in the second verse, and her powerhouse approach quickly got the crowd cheering. The Music Man readers will definitely want to tune in at 2:30, where Morton takes on that huge iconic vocal run in the bridge, making it sound like honey poured over thunder.
Morton is an undiscovered singer, but her distinctive soul take on “Creep” really got her noticed online, drawing 400,000 views across multiple YouTube uploads. Fans were blown away by the power of her voice and added comments such as “I straight up cried during that second chorus. I haven’t felt this from a singer in forever” and “The choices she made when she went from loud to quiet… absolute chills. I’ve heard many covers of this song and I believe this is THE most absolutely beautiful version I’ve ever heard.”
There have indeed been countless “Creep” covers over the years, but the most iconic version remains Radiohead’s own rendition performed on September 14, 1993, on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The performance has everything that made the song such a huge hit, including Thom Yorke’s tortured vocal performance and Jonny Greenwood’s famous buzzsaw guitar jabs heading into the chorus.
Radiohead issued “Creep” on September 21, 1992, as their debut single, cut from their debut album Pablo Honey. The music was written by Radiohead and the lyrics by frontman Thom Yorke. The Music Man readers might be interested to read that “Creep” has a similar chord progression and melody to “The Air That I Breathe,” which was written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood for a 1972 release. After taking it to court, Hammond and Hazelwood were subsequently credited as co-writers on the music for the song. “Creep” is still Radiohead’s biggest hit all these years later and has been featured twice on Rolling Stone’s list of ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’.