That night, having quickly composed the song, the band recorded it. Bassist Guy Berryman came up with the opening line "Look at the stars". The lyrics progressed from there, with the band collaborating. He looked around the studio and saw the Yellow Pages. He was thinking of a specific word, which he deemed a missing keyword in the lyrics, to fit the song's concept. While composing the song's lyrics, Martin could not find the right words. When guitarist Jonny Buckland started playing it and supplemented it with his ideas, they had created the riff, "and it sort of got a bit heavier". Not long after, despite not taking the song seriously, Martin's idea worked out when he had developed the tempo of the verse. Martin has said, "The song had the word 'stars' and that seemed like a word you should sing in a Neil Young voice." The melody "started off a lot slower", according to drummer Will Champion, and it sounded like a Neil Young song. At first, Martin did not take it seriously and sang the tune to the rest of the band in "his worst Neil Young impersonation voice". Lead singer Chris Martin was inspired by the sight and the song's main melody, consisting of a chord pattern, popped into his head. He told the band to look at the stars, which they did. Outside, there were few lights on and the stars in the sky were visible and "just amazing", according to the song's co-producer, Ken Nelson. One night after finishing recording " Shiver", the band took a break and went out of the studio. "Yellow" was written in Rockfield's Quadrangle studio near Monmouth in South Wales, where Coldplay began working on their debut album, Parachutes. "Yellow" has since been covered by various recording artists worldwide, and remains one of the band's most popular songs. Helped by heavy rotation and usage in advertising, the song thrust the band into popularity. It was Coldplay's breakthrough hit internationally, reaching number one in Iceland, number five in Australia, number nine in Ireland and number 48 in the United States. "Yellow" reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, giving Coldplay their first top-five hit in the United Kingdom. The song was recorded in March 2000 and released on 26 June that same year as the second UK single from Parachutes, following " Shiver", and as the lead single in the United States. The band wrote the song and co-produced it with British record producer Ken Nelson for their debut album, Parachutes (2000). " Yellow" is a song by the British rock band Coldplay.