"Fake Plastic Trees" is a song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on their second album, The Bends (1995). It was the third single from the album in the UK, and the first in the US. It charted on the UK Singles Chart, the New Zealand Singles Chart, the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, and the Canadian Rock/Alternative chart. Writing Singer Thom Yorke said "Fake Plastic Trees" was "the product of a joke that wasn't really a joke, a very lonely, drunken evening and, well, a breakdown of sorts". He said the song arose from a melody he had "no idea what to do with". He did not take his usual approach of either keeping note "of whatever my head's singing at the particular moment" or forcing "some nifty phrases" he devised onto the melody. Instead, "That was not forced at all, it was just recording whatever was going on in my head, really. I mean, I wrote those words and laughed. I thought they were really funny, especially that bit about polystyrene." Recording Guitarist Ed O'Brien described early attempts to record "Fake Plastic Trees" at London's RAK Studios as sounding "like Guns N' Roses' 'November Rain'. It was so pompous and bombastic." Frustrated at being at the studio for a prolonged period one day, Yorke "threw a wobbly" in his own description, after which producer John Leckie sent the rest of the band away while Yorke recorded a guide track for featuring only guitar and vocals. Yorke performed three takes of the song and cried afterwards, according to guitarist Jonny Greenwood. One source of frustration for the band at the time was their US record label, Capitol, which wanted a strong track for American radio to follow the success of their previous hit single, "Creep". Surprised that the slow-paced "Fake Plastic Trees" was seen as a potential single to follow up "Creep", Yorke realised that Capitol had Bob Clearmountain remix the track without the band's approval: "I said 'No way'. All the ghost-like keyboard sounds and weird strings were completely gutted out of his mix, like he'd gone in with a razor blade and chopped it all up. It was horrible." Critical reception Writing for NME in May 1995, John Mulvey felt that "Fake Plastic Trees" lacked substance, and drew comparisons with the stadium rock of U2. It placed at number 385 on Rolling Stone's list of