If people thought of you as a creep, you'd be ready to move on, too.

English band Radiohead had a huge hit in 1993 with Creep, off their LP Pablo Honey, in which singer Thom Yorke offered a testimony to self-loathing: "You're so (expletive) special, but I'm a creep."

The band hardly wanted to be considered a one-hit wonder, so there was considerable pressure on their next album.

"A lot of people had written us off. We just seemed to be frozen in a snapshot of that one song," said bassist Colin Greenwood. "So the next record had a make-or-break feeling to it, instead of just the second album in a long career."

Of course, Radiohead still plays Creep - they just don't want to be defined by it.

"It's just another number in the songbook," Greenwood said. "It's not like there's any stigma attached to it. It enabled us to get out into the world. The frustration comes from being identified for so long with one song."

The band's follow-up record, The Bends, is a moody, guitar-driven epic, with the melancholy Yorke's sometimes bitter, sometimes pleading lyrics.

His high, pleading voice wafts through High and Dry ("Don't leave me high/ Don't leave me dry"), My Iron Lung opens with a pretty melody interrupted by incongruous crashing guitars, and Bulletproof . . . I Wish I Was seems to float gently by.

Planet Telex goes the distortion route, while Black Star has the makings of an anthemic rocker.

The first single, Fake Plastic Trees, starts out as a simple acoustic number and develops a stately sweep before it finishes.

"We gave the record to Capitol, and there was concern there wasn't a Creep II on there," Greenwood said. "It's different from what's on American radio these days, as well. We seem to have picked the harder route for ourselves."

But then, it took a long time for Creep to make it big. The song was actually released twice, first in 1992 and again a year or so later.

Greenwood, whose brother Jon plays keyboards in the band, theorized about why the British presence seems relatively slight on the American rock scene these days.

"I don't think it's the music - a great song should do well anywhere," Greenwood said.

Instead, he thinks it's all about the relative sizes of Britain and America. In England, he said, you can tour the whole country in a few weeks. Some key radio play and a few articles in the music press, and you've arrived. It can happen fast.

Consequently, most British bands aren't used to the endless touring that's considered routine for American bands. (Although Radiohead toured for more than two years after Pablo Honey came out).

"It's like dealing with a flea as opposed to an elephant," Greenwood said. "It's a whole different dimension of time and space."