I remember I bought Pablo Honey when it came out, but was less than impressed and sort of chucked it to the side after a few listens.
Then I remember my friend and I driving in my car. We were talking about one-hit wonder bands and he mentioned he thought Radiohead and "Creep" seemed to have fallen into that category since we hadn't heard anything by them in a couple years. Not even 10 minutes later the radio station KROQ "world premiered" 'My Iron Lung' and we were both BLOWN away and I was laughing at him for his "dated" one-hit wonder proclamation.
As much as I liked The Bends, and especially 'Sulk', I still only listened to a few songs and rarely the entire album all the way through.
A few years later, while on a trip to San Francisco, I was in a record shop around Haight & Ashbury, and I saw a giant OK Computer poster on the wall, and I remember thinking,
Oh, I didn't know Radiohead has another album. So I bought it, brought it home and
'No Suprises'.
'No Suprises'. That's the song that did it for me. I had never heard anything quite like it and I was just spellbound. And then I fell in love with the rest of OK Computer. And then I went back and
truly discovered The Bends and fell in love with that WHOLE album.
And then there was no looking back. I've been a goner ever since.
(Though, there's still only a handful of tracks off Pablo Honey that I ever listen to. I've still never fallen in love with that album. But the ones that are good 'Blow Out', 'Lurgee', 'Been Thinking About You', 'Stop Whispering' are just
great!)