Yellow

Coldplay wrote "Yellow" one night at Rockfield's Quadrangle studio near Monmouth in Wales, where the band had begun working on their debut album, Parachutes. After finishing recording "Shiver", they stepped outside, where few lights were on and the stars were visible. Co-producer Ken Nelson told the band to look at the sky, and the sight inspired Chris Martin to come up with the song's main melody, a chord pattern. He did not take it seriously at first, singing the tune in what he called his worst Neil Young impersonation voice. Drummer Will Champion recalled that the melody started off much slower and sounded like a Neil Young song, but once guitarist Jonny Buckland added his ideas, the riff got a bit heavier.

Finding the lyrics proved harder. Martin felt a keyword was missing and, looking around the studio, spotted the Yellow pages. Bassist Guy Berryman came up with the opening line "Look at the stars". Years later, on The Howard Stern Show in 2011, Martin admitted the word "yellow" had no meaning at all and that he had tried to change it while writing, but it simply sounded right. He told Stern it was the first time he had told anyone the truth behind the title, adding that he often invented stories depending on the interviewer.

The song was released on 26 June 2000 as the second UK single from Parachutes and reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, the band's first top-five hit at home. It reached number one in Iceland and number five in Australia, and ended 2000 as the most-aired song on British radio.