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Ken Nelson pointed at the stars outside Rockfield, and Martin sang the melody in his worst Neil Young impression.

Ken Nelson pointed at the stars outside Rockfield, and Martin sang the melody in his worst Neil Young impression.

A piano riff Martin nearly saved for the next album, rescued by their manager, then Record of the Year.

Eno producing, Davide Rossi's looping strings, a deposed king narrating, and Coldplay's first number one in Britain and America.

One out-of-tune Liverpool piano, an attempt at a Harrison song abandoned, and the chord run Martin kept instead.

Eno took a co-writing credit and played synthesizers; it became Coldplay's second UK number one and a stadium fixture.

Recorded four times before Ken Nelson kept one, and Martin, by his account, apologizing for behaving badly toward his band.
Buckland gave up on a guitar part and played maracas instead, and Martin's slow crawl back still aches.

Martin wrote the verse in Amsterdam and the outro in Iceland; the closing track waits minutes before the guitars arrive.

Martin called it a blatant Jeff Buckley attempt, cut at Rockfield with Ken Nelson, and the chorus soars anyway.