The Song That Took Radiohead 21 Years to Create
Radiohead debuted “True Love Waits” in Brussels in 1995 while on tour for The Bends. They tried to capture it in the studio for OK Computer, then again for Kid A and Amnesiac, failing at every turn. Yet fans LOVED it. This is the story of Radiohead’s ‘secret song,’ “True Love Waits,” and how things finally came together for their 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool. The result was unexpected. The result was perfect. The result was worth the wait.
👉 Subscribe for More Videos: https://youtube.com/c/AndyFenstermaker/?sub_confirmation=1
✉️ Read the transcript & hear the music on the Poetic Wax Substack: https://poeticwax.substack.com
WATCH NEXT:
✓ The Meaning of “Fake Plastic Trees” https://youtu.be/UjzAvjWhuCA
✓ The Story of The Bends: https://youtu.be/gLQLpKIZrgc
✓ The Story of Kid A: https://youtu.be/zSLlfuatiQc
🎥 Radiohead on the Poetic Wax Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLylroYWVYWWVUIWVFqMuPRxWfHae3_CBr
Get Radiohead on Vinyl 🎧 https://amzn.to/4opDqAr
Poetic Wax is hosted by Andy Fenstermaker.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 A Song 21 Years in the Making
1:15 The Unreleased Years of True Love Waits
2:21 The ‘I Might Be Wrong’ Live Recording
3:24 Failed Attempts to Capture it in Studio
7:49 True Love Waits’ Early Versions vs the Studio Release
12:51 Was it Worth The Wait?
SELECT REFERENCES & CREDITS:
Studio Footage (Hail to the Thief): https://youtu.be/9PRzeWtgQy4?si=GJ0nS1xyOs8-wMHZ
Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/2016/05/history-radiohead-true-love-waits.html
Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/radiohead-reconnect-248129/
How to Disappear (Book): https://howtodisappearbook.com/
The Singers Talk (Book): https://amzn.to/3IY0Nkb
#radiohead #truelovewaits #thomyorke #thebends #okcomputer #vinylcommunity #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #andyfenstermaker #fensepost #vinylchannel #poeticwax #musicessay #musicstory #albumstory #musichistory #albumhistory #musicdocumentary
@AndyFenstermaker
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
Read the transcript and hear the songs here 👉 https://poeticwax.substack.com/p/true-love-waits-the-song-radiohead
Next, dig into the meaning behind "Fake Plastic Trees" 👉 https://youtu.be/UjzAvjWhuCA
@bjrnbrynemo9059
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
Nice review. Another big unreleased for 2 decades song was Man On War. I'd love to see you make a video about your thoughts on that.
@markcarey67
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
The live acoustic version off of the I Might Be Wrong live album will always be the canonical version of that song for me in the same way that the piano version of Spinning Plates off that same live album will always be the canonical version of that song.
@kevinsaleeba2201
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
I love the “shitty live version” the best! Sorry, Nigel, you’re wrong about that performance!
@aperturisss123
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
I really dislike your delivery, how you have a clearly, carefully scripted narrative but you try to recite it like you're coming up with words on the fly. The constant pauses to deliver words is such an annoying conceit.
@fleetstreet11
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
Both Sides Now, Judy Collins, has the same evolution of meaning sung when she was younger and sung when she was older.
@matthewsmith4713
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
the released version definitely isn't "perfect". its the big let down ever
@vgs2369
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
The best one was the original one at the first time
@abandonedmuse
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
Real quick, your podcast was not found when I clicked on Apple Podcasts after clicking on sub stack so you might want to change the link because it’s broken. I found it by searching and I added you.
@abandonedmuse
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
Napster was where I first found all the RadioHead b sides and random songs. I have 152 bootlegs
@MicahBuzanANIMATION
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
I always preferred the acoustic version. In recent interview with The Smile, Thom mentioned how he enjoys working so fast on The Smile songs and regrets overworking a few Radiohead tracks, like True Love Waits. He recognized it works better stripped down on acoustic.
@marnoster
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
I liked the live acoustic strumming more than the one that made A Moonshaped Pool. To recall a cheesy, overused phrase…Sometime less is more. It feels like the simple instrumental elements were designated for Pablo honey or the Bends. Something along the lines of High and Dry, or Fake plastic trees. Thoms voice and Edds Fender softly howling in tandem, easy acoustic strumming, a gentle tempo with predictable drumming and the baseline affirming Thom's every line.
In ceramics one of the first things you'll learn throwing pottery on a wheel is recognising when to stop shaping the clay to avoid irreparably breaking the shape. Making it work on one of their later albums took away the feels I had listening to the live version.
@souljaboytellem.
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
true love waits being the last song of their likely last album is just perfect. true love waits, but now just without radiohead
@jeremiahbayani184
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
In 2006, Radiohead played 2 nights in Berkeley, CA (Greek Theater) to road test their upcoming album In Rainbows.Right before they played Everything In its Right Place, Thom Yoke, sitting behind a Fender Rhodes, started singing True Love Waits. It sounded so different from the version I'm familiar with (with acoustic guitar) that it took me a second to recognize it. But when I did, I was in heaven
@Clodd1
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
This song does nothing for me. AMSP in general is too weak for my taste and I’m a die-hard Radiohead fan. I even like TKOL.
@franki1990
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
Ok, but will they play it on imaginary states that commit genocides?
@andrewlloydpeterson
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
Important context: thom wrote it shortly after he started dating Rachel – his future wife with whom he had 2 kids. During AMSP sessions they broke up and She died of cancer shortly after album release. Ok computer reissue oknotok was dedicated to her memory
@wolke9270
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
I love Sunny Day Real Estate so much. They would be well worth to talk about them one day.
@tetris_god_real
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
7th!!!!!!
@LFrock12
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
TLW
@brainierbaleda4385
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
TLW
@SkinnyEatWorld95
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
Absolutely looooove Radiohead man. They have aged like a very fine wine.
@Directorkey718
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
The only version of this song I LOVE and accept is that Brussels one with the weird ascending/descending synth piano (?) patterns in the background.
—-> https://youtu.be/6zuC2jyQ6Cg?si=CW-QsCbwzeoNPjAQ
@DBayakFlRemake
April 11, 2026 at 1:56 pm
crazy algorithm, im too early