Released as the lead single from '' OK Computer '' , " Paranoid Android " charted at number three on the UK Singles Chart . It was well received by music critics . The track has appeared regularly on lists of the best songs of all time , including '' Rolling Stone '' s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time . Its animated music video , directed by Magnus Carlsson , was placed on heavy rotation on MTV , although the network censored portions containing nudity in the US . At the 1998 Brit Awards , the song was nominated for Best British Single . Since its release , the track has been covered by artists working in a variety of genres . The song was included in the 2008 '' Radiohead : The Best Of . '' Along with most of the rest of '' OK Computer '' , " Paranoid Android " was recorded in actress Jane Seymour 's 15th-century mansion near the village of St Catherine , near Bath , Somerset . Radiohead fused parts from three different songs , inspired by the through-composed structure of the Beatles ' " Happiness Is a Warm Gun " . Queen 's " Bohemian Rhapsody " and the work of the Pixies were further reference points . Bassist Colin Greenwood said the band " felt like irresponsible schoolboys ... nobody does a six-and-a-half-minute song with all these changes . It 's ridiculous . " Producer Nigel Godrich edited the parts together with tape . He said : " It ’s a very hard thing to explain , but it ’s all on 24-track and it runs through ... I was very pleased with myself . I sort of stood there and said , ' You guys have '' no idea '' what I ’ve just done . ' It was pretty clever . " It took the band a year and a half to learn how to play the final version live . The first version was over 14 minutes long and included a long Hammond organ outro performed by Jonny Greenwood . Guitarist Ed O'Brien said : " We 'd be pissing ourselves while we played . We 'd bring out the glockenspiel and it would be really , really funny . " Yorke sarcastically referred to the version as " a Pink Floyd cover " . Greenwood said later that the organ solo was " hard to listen to without clutching the sofa for support " . Producer Nigel Godrich said : " Nothing really happened with the outro . It just spun and spun and it got very Deep Purple and went off . " Inspired by the editing of the Beatles ' '' Magical Mystery Tour '' , Radiohead shortened the song to six and a half minutes , with the organ solo replaced with a shorter guitar outro
1998 Brit Awards
1998 Brit Awards
Paranoid Android