Lucky

This sonic discovery coincided with an invitation to contribute to The Help Album, a charity compilation organized by War Child. The unique aspect of this project was that all recordings had to be made in a single day, September 4, 1995, for immediate release. Radiohead, along with engineer Nigel Godrich, managed to capture Lucky in just five hours. Godrich, who had already collaborated on The Bends and produced several of the band's B-sides, would later become the producer of their third album, OK Computer. He himself described these rapid recording sessions as "the most inspiring, when you do things very quickly and there's nothing to lose," feeling great euphoria upon completion. Later, Thom Yorke would note that Lucky was fundamental in defining the nascent sound and atmosphere of OK Computer, considering it "the first mark on the wall" of what the band aspired to create. Although originally planned as a single to promote OK Computer, released in 1997, circumstances beyond the band's control limited its physical distribution to France in December of that same year. The song, with its album version duration of 4:19, also appeared on the Help EP, reaching number 51 on the charts despite not receiving airplay on BBC Radio 1. The version found on OK Computer is the same as the one appearing on The Help Album and the Help EP, as the band attempted to re-record it for their third album but concluded they could not improve upon the original take. The music composition of Lucky is a joint effort by Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Jonny Greenwood, Phil Selway, and Thom Yorke.