Creep (5:33)

“Creep” is a song by American rock band Stone Temple Pilots, appearing as the seventh track off the band’s debut album Core and later released as a single. “Creep” also appears on the greatest hits album Thank You.

The song’s lyrics were written by lead vocalist Scott Weiland and bassist Robert DeLeo. DeLeo also wrote the song’s music. DeLeo stated the following about “Creep:”

Musically speaking I was thinking about a song along the lines of ‘Heart Of Gold’ by Neil Young, which is in the key of D-minor, the saddest key of all. Scott was thinking about the lyrics, and at that time in our lives we were struggling very much. What Scott was writing about was a real-life situation. Also about me, the thing about the gun. ‘Creep’ is a very demeaning word. It was one of those instances where we looked at ourselves, looked in the mirror.

When Stone Temple Pilots released “Creep” as a single for the second time in 1993 (it was originally released before “Plush”, but didn’t chart well and Atlantic released it again after “Plush”), Weiland re-recorded the vocals for this song. There are four studio cuts of “Creep” as a result. The “Original Album Version” and its shorter edit “Original Radio Version”, and the “New Album Version” and edited “New Radio Version”.