Talk:Reckoner

Single

@Blz 2049: I require your expertise on single releases again. For years, Wikipedia - I believe incorrectly - reported this song, Reckoner, as a single. In fact I believe it was only a promotional single, unless you count the release of the remix stems (see the Release section in the article). However, if you look at the UK charts site, it apparently reached number 74 on the UK Singles Chart. I'm not completely sure how this might have happened - perhaps through sales of the stems? I'd also like to mention that chart position in this article, but not yet sure how to explain it. Popcornfud (talk) 12:59, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Huh. It must be the stems. Discogs says the stems were released digitally on September 23, 2008, and they charted the week of September 28. The notes on Discogs also indicate it was only available for download for a limited time, as part of a remix contest. I don't see any other "retail" release of "Reckoner" as a single. You're right that "Reckoner" was released as a promotional CD-R single, which is undated besides the year, though the note affixed to the cover of the version on Discogs would suggest August 2008, maybe late July.

I would tend to say the "Reckoner" stems EP (Discogs' classification) is not quite the same as a retail single, if for no other reason than it omits "Reckoner" itself—it might be different if it were the stems plus "Reckoner" as such, but it's only the stems. It's possible the UK charts counted sales of the stems as sales of a single called ""Reckoner"", which is not quite accurate but would explain how the song charted. Ultimately it's a somewhat shot call whether to deem it as "a single" or not, but my vote would be no. Even if the bundle of digital "Reckoner" stems are deemed "a single" for certain purposes, there was no retail recording of the song "Reckoner" as it appeared on the album (or in a similar alternate form, given that singles are commonly edited for time etc.).

Another possible explanation: I'm not 100% sure how the UK Singles Chart tracked sales at that time, but it's possible that they may have counted best-selling individual MP3s even if those MP3s were not formally "singles" but rather album tracks that consumers were choosing to purchase as one-offs from digital retailers like e.g. iTunes. If that's the case then it's possible radio airplay of "Reckoner", plus the publicity of the "stems" contest promo, and/or something in the air in late September 2008, could have driven people to buy "Reckoner" as an MP3. But that's just a hypothesis. —blz 2049 ➠ ❏ 03:08, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, as ever, for this thoughtful response. I agree that we shouldn't treat this as a single.

Before "Reckoner", Radiohead released "Nude" as a traditional single, but they also sold the individual stems for that song, too, for another remix competition. The stems counted towards sales of the single ([1]) in that case - which is covered in the Wikipedia article - so I guess the same thing must have happened here, just with no actual single in place.

I guess there's nothing for it but to mention in the article that it charted on the singles chart, though without a reliable source, we can't explain why. It's a bit annoying, because as a reader I'd probably misinterpret that to mean it was a single - I'd otherwise want some explanation as to how a non-single managed to chart on a singles chart. Popcornfud (talk) 11:19, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

I agree so much with the last bit of what you said there. These kinds of lacunas can be maddening to encounter as an editor, even when they're somewhat minor. The contrast with "Nude" pretty conveniently and clearly illustrates the difference though, should this ever be at issue. —blz 2049 ➠ ❏ 20:10, 7 December 2021 (UTC)