"Pyramid Song" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Amnesiac (2001). It features piano, strings, a "shuffling" rhythm and lyrics inspired by the Egyptian underworld. It was promoted with an animated music video. After no singles were released from their previous album, Kid A (2000), "Pyramid Song" was Radiohead's first single since "No Surprises" (1998). It reached the top 10 on seven national charts, and was named one of the best tracks of the decade by Rolling Stone, NME and Pitchfork. Writing and recording Following the tour for Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), Radiohead's songwriter, Thom Yorke, bought a house in Cornwall and spent his time walking the cliffs and drawing, restricting his musical activity to playing his new grand piano. He wrote "Pyramid Song" and "Everything In Its Right Place" in the same week. For "Everything In Its Right Place", he programmed his playing into a synthesiser, but found that "Pyramid Song" sounded better untreated. He said of the composition: "The chords I'm playing involve lots of black notes. You think you're being really clever playing them but they're really simple." Yorke said "Pyramid Song" was inspired by the song "Freedom" by the jazz musician Charles Mingus, released on the 1962 album The Complete Town Hall Concert. One version of "Pyramid Song" included similar handclaps, but, according to Yorke, they sounded "naff" and so he erased them. The lyrics were inspired by an exhibition of ancient Egyptian underworld art Yorke attended while Radiohead were recording in Copenhagen, and ideas of cyclical time found in Buddhism and discussed by Stephen Hawking. According to a studio diary written by the guitarist Ed O’Brien, the basic track, consisting of vocals, piano and drums, was recorded on 8 December 1999. The strings, arranged by Jonny Greenwood, were recorded on 4 February 2000. They were performed by the Orchestra of St John's in Dorchester Abbey, a 12th-century church about five miles from Radiohead's studio in Oxfordshire. Greenwood instructed the players to swing in the style of jazz musicians. The isolated string part was included on the 2021 reissue Kid A Mnesia. "Pyramid Song" uses an unusual rhythm and its time signature has the been subject of discussion. According to Radiohead's drummer, Philip Selway, "Pyramid Song" is in swung 4/4; however, he said he "felt his way" through the drum part more