Flavorwire

We were intrigued to hear the news last week that Radiohead are planning on releasing a series of 12″ remixes of the songs from The King of Limbs, handing over the album tracks to producers like Flying Lotus and Caribou to cut up and reinterpret. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their love of all things electronic, Radiohead have always been enlightened when it comes to having their tracks reworked, so much so that there are a couple of Radiohead remixes out there that arguably improve on the original versions. These got us thinking about other guitar-based or otherwise rock-inflected tracks that have been improved by remixing – they’re surprisingly few and far between, perhaps because writers of rock songs have been loath to let producers deconstruct them over the years. We’ve collected ten of our favorites; additional suggestions are, as ever, welcome.

Radiohead – “Talk Show Host” (Nellee Hooper remix)

Originally buried on the B-side to “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” this turned out to be one of the best Bends-era tracks once it was administered a bit of love and some gentle tweaks by Massive Attack producer Nellee Hooper. The remixed version made its way onto the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and also into the band’s live setlist. It’s not the only Radiohead track improved by an external remix – see also “Skttrbrn,” the Four Tet remix of Hail to the Thief‘s “Scatterbrain” that we discussed a couple of weeks back.