the hollies -"the air that i breathe" vs radiohead

alieNDNalieNDN 2,181 Posts
edited December 2008 in Strut Central
i only looked up the hollies on youtube after that disco by non disco groups thread, as i had no idea who they were, and then i realized they are the group that sang "the air that i breathe" (my dad played that tune a lot when i was a kid). so im listening to it and damn the intro verse sound so so nice. then i read the youtube comments which mention that parts of it similar to radiohead's creep, so much that the hollies got writing credits...actually the intro even reminds me of a verve song... don't care much about that, but damn the song is incredible and i never realized it before. i just keep listening to the verse and rewinding.(video plot is messed up!)

  Comments


  • LokoOneLokoOne 1,823 Posts
    i picked up a couple of thier LPs a fortnight ago for the F*ck off it (they were 50 cents each) and found they got some half decent tunes on there... they drop a couple of nice covers...

  • The Hollies are nice. (that video is goofy though. actually, a 1974 music video with a PLOT is quite unusual, what on earth was the market for this video back then?)

    Graham Nash started in this band (though he left before this song, to form CSN, CSNY etc. i kind of view this song as their last hurrah before some mid to late 70s blandness. all the 60s material is strong.

  • magpaulmagpaul 1,314 Posts
    i never knew this connection till now, but it wasn't the Hollies who got credited but Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood who wrote the song for Phil Everly.

    there was an commercial featuring 'He Ain't Heavy' in my youth that helped it enter my private mindgarden.

  • nzshadownzshadow 5,526 Posts
    That intro definitely sounds like the Verve.

  • alieNDNalieNDN 2,181 Posts
    That intro definitely sounds like the Verve.

    "the drugs don't work" right?!


  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    i never knew this connection till now, but it wasn't the Hollies who got credited but Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood who wrote the song for Phil Everly.

    Yeah, Phil actually recorded it first for a solo album a year before
    the Hollies version ... the Everly LP is pretty obscure, may even be
    UK-only. I never knew about Radiohead giving writing credits for "Creep"
    based on "Air That I Breathe," that's pretty interesting. I would never
    have really made the connection, except for maybe the early part of each song.

    And yeah, the Hollies kind of rule. The early hits with Graham Nash like "Bus
    Stop" and "Carrie Ann" and all that, and of course the post-Graham AM Gold
    classic "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" which I never seem to get tired of.

    I recommend everyone look out for the Everly Brothers LP "Two Yanks in England"
    which features the boys backed by the Hollies circa 1965 doing a number of their
    hits, awesome versions of "Hard Hard Year" "Somebody Help Me" and others.

  • alieNDNalieNDN 2,181 Posts
    i never knew this connection till now, but it wasn't the Hollies who got credited but Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood who wrote the song for Phil Everly.

    I never knew about Radiohead giving writing credits for "Creep"
    based on "Air That I Breathe," that's pretty interesting. I would never
    have really made the connection, except for maybe the early part of each song.


    i didnt get it initially, but listen to creep in the middle of the song,at the part where yorke is howling and compare it to the beginning of the hollies tune.

  • way back someone did a matched up mp3 page where you could click back and forth between the hollies and radiohead tracks, and listen to them simultaneously. i think this was a factor in the hollies publishing co. demanding a piece of the radiohead song. most chord changes, some melodies and song structure are pretty much the same, and that was enough to do the do.

  • alieNDNalieNDN 2,181 Posts
    way back someone did a matched up mp3 page where you could click back and forth between the hollies and radiohead tracks, and listen to them simultaneously. i think this was a factor in the hollies publishing co. demanding a piece of the radiohead song. most chord changes, some melodies and song structure are pretty much the same, and that was enough to do the do.

    interestingly or non interestingly enuff, the same has recently been done with a coldplay song and a joe satriani song...every second youtube comment on the coldplay song references the debate. lol who the hell knew there were huge satriani fans...i used to think he was just someone that would post TAB riffs on guitar world magazine lol


  • way back someone did a matched up mp3 page where you could click back and forth between the hollies and radiohead tracks, and listen to them simultaneously. i think this was a factor in the hollies publishing co. demanding a piece of the radiohead song. most chord changes, some melodies and song structure are pretty much the same, and that was enough to do the do.

    interestingly or non interestingly enuff, the same has recently been done with a coldplay song and a joe satriani song...every second youtube comment on the coldplay song references the debate. lol who the hell knew there were huge satriani fans...i used to think he was just someone that would post TAB riffs on guitar world magazine lol


    wow, its a Douche War!

    b/w

    Nickelback did this with themselves a while back too. They won their own inner douche war.

  • alieNDNalieNDN 2,181 Posts
    way back someone did a matched up mp3 page where you could click back and forth between the hollies and radiohead tracks, and listen to them simultaneously. i think this was a factor in the hollies publishing co. demanding a piece of the radiohead song. most chord changes, some melodies and song structure are pretty much the same, and that was enough to do the do.

    interestingly or non interestingly enuff, the same has recently been done with a coldplay song and a joe satriani song...every second youtube comment on the coldplay song references the debate. lol who the hell knew there were huge satriani fans...i used to think he was just someone that would post TAB riffs on guitar world magazine lol


    wow, its a Douche War!

    b/w

    Nickelback did this with themselves a while back too. They won their own inner douche war.

    that douche war is trumped by who used the song title "come clean" first, jeru the damaja or hillary duff.

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts

    that douche war is trumped by who used the song title "come clean" first, jeru the damaja or hillary duff.

    Was Duff even born when the Jeru track came out?
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