No Surprises
by Radiohead
- 74
- BPM
- F major
- Key
- 7B
- Camelot
- 26
- Danceability
- 6
- Acousticness
By March 2025, "No Surprises" had passed one billion streams, making it Radiohead's most streamed song after "Creep". It came out in 1998 as the fourth and final single from OK Computer and reached number four on the UK singles chart. American modern rock radio received it on April 27, 1998.
Thom Yorke wrote it in 1995, while Radiohead were on tour with R.E.M. He played it for both bands in a dressing room in Oslo on August 3, 1995, as a sketch called "No Surprises Please". Later the lyrics were rewritten and a glockenspiel melody was added. The band made many recordings and could not improve on the first take. Producer Nigel Godrich wanted a slower pace than the band could play well, so they recorded fast. He slowed the playback while Yorke overdubbed his vocals.
Grant Gee directed the video, a single close-up of Yorke in a helmet that slowly fills with water. The shoot on November 28, 1997, went badly. Yorke could hold his breath for over a minute at rest, but he struggled to manage ten seconds before draining the helmet. After many attempts, with coaching from the assistant director, he completed a take.
No Surprises runs at 74 BPM, the tempo of soul, trip-hop and half-time hip-hop. In classical terms it sits in largo territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 3.24 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 811 ms. It is in F major, Camelot 7B, which shares its notes with D minor and mixes cleanly with Bb major and C major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.