10 Greatest Love Songs In Rock
3. True Love Waits - Radiohead
If you consider yourself a Radiohead fan at all, it's expected that not everything that they make is necessarily the most cheery of songs. Hell, even when they were at the peak of their popularity in the late '90s and early '00s, it was understood that the melodies and lyrics coming from Thom Yorke were almost designed to be depressing once you heard them. The one big exception to that being True Love Waits...sort of.
Taking the darker side as always, the lyrics of this tune are structured in the wake of a near breakup, as Thom offers to do absolutely everything he can to make sure he doesn't lose the love of his life. Aside from mentioning everything amazing about her, Thom offers to wash her swollen feet and dress like her niece as long as she doesn't leave him. While this record never found a home on a Radiohead album, its inevitable conclusion on a Moon Shaped Pool was a lot more heart-destroying than anything else.
With a more piano driven accompaniment, Thom sings this version almost stoically, as he tries to take in this separation in real time. It only adds to the heartache once you realize that Yorke's wife left him at the time before eventually dying of cancer, giving each "Don't Leave" a lot more weight behind it. No matter how much it might hurt to listen to, you'd hardly find another track in rock music with nerves as raw as this one.