On This Day In Oasis History...
By
Stop Crying Your Heart Out
on
October 02, 2008
(What's the Story) Morning Glory? is the second album by the English rock band Oasis, released on October 2 1995. The album went straight to #1 in the UK, selling 347,000 copies in its first week. (What's the Story) Morning Glory? spawned four hit singles in the UK, two of which were #1s. It sold over 19 million copies worldwide, including over 4.3 million copies in the UK, 14x platinum, and is currently the third biggest-selling album in UK chart history. Morning Glory has gone 4x platinum in the United States In addition, the singles "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova" went Gold in the United States.
The album, which was recorded in less than two weeks, contains arguably the band's two most famous songs, "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger", along with "Champagne Supernova" and their first UK #1 single, "Some Might Say".
In 1997 Morning Glory was named the 5th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998 Q magazine readers placed it at number 8, and in 2000 it achieved the same position in Q's list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. The editors of Q magazine declared it the "album of the decade" in 1999. The readers of Q placed it seventh on the 2006 top 100 greatest albums of all time list. In 2003, the album was ranked number 376 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
History
The success of Morning Glory catapulted Oasis from being a successful Britpop band to being one of the biggest bands in Britain, with substantial international fame, and considerable press coverage in the mainstream and music press. The band played several massive open air concerts in the UK during 1996, which included two nights at Knebworth in front of a combined audience of 250,000 people (125,000 each night), with over 2.5 million applying to buy tickets.
Tracklisting
01: "Hello" (Gallagher/Glitter/Leander) – 3:21
02: "Roll with It" – 4:00
03: "Wonderwall" – 4:19
04: "Don't Look Back in Anger" – 4:48
05: "Hey Now!" – 5:41
06: Untitled (aka "The Swamp Song - Excerpt 1") – 0:43
07: "Some Might Say" – 5:31
08: "Cast No Shadow" – 4:52
09: "She's Electric" – 3:40
10: "Morning Glory" – 5:03
11: Untitled (aka "The Swamp Song - Excerpt 2") – 0:41
12: "Champagne Supernova" – 7:27
Notes:
* Tracks 6 and 11 are officially untitled. In fact, the track listing bears no title whatsoever for these songs, merely a blank space.
* The excerpts from "The Swamp Song" are parts of the instrumental B-side to the "Wonderwall" single.
* The vinyl LP edition of the album features a bonus track, "Bonehead's Bank Holiday". This song appears as the 7th track on the album, immediately after the 43-second untitled track.
* "Step Out" had to be removed from the album at the last minute. The song, sung by Noel, was intended to have been the original track 8 (after "Some Might Say" and before "Cast No Shadow"), but was removed as the chorus was similar to the chorus of Stevie Wonder's 1965 track "Uptight (Everything's Alright)". Wonder's publishing company were alleged to have demanded a substantial amount of royalties from the album which Oasis weren't prepared to pay, so the track was removed, although not before the first promotional copies of the album had been released with "Step Out" included. The track was eventually released as a B-side on Oasis' 1996 single "Don't Look Back in Anger", with an amended song writing credit of 'Gallagher/Wonder/Cosby/May', and was included on the live album Familiar to Millions.
Singles
"Some Might Say"
Released: 24 April 1995
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Oasis & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #1 (UK), #3 (IRE)
"Roll with It"
Released: 14 August 1995
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Oasis & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #2 (UK), #2 (IRE)
"Morning Glory" (AUS only)
Released: 15 September 1995
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Noel Gallagher & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #25 AUS, #24 U.S. Modern Rock Chart
"Wonderwall"
Released: 30 October 1995
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Noel Gallagher & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #2 (UK), #8 (U.S.), #1 U.S. Modern Rock Chart (10 Weeks)
"Don't Look Back in Anger"
Released: 19 February 1996
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Noel Gallagher & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #1 (UK), #1 (IRE), #10 U.S. Modern Rock Chart, #21 (U.S.)
"Champagne Supernova" (AUS and US only)
Released: 13 May 1996
Writer: Noel Gallagher
Producers: Noel Gallagher & Owen Morris
Chart positions: #26 (AUS), #20 (US), #1 U.S. Modern Rock Chart (5 Weeks)
Miscellanea
"Hello" contains elements of Gary Glitter's "Hello Hello I'm Back Again" as Liam jokingly sings part of the song's chorus when the song begins to fade out.
On the cover of the album a man is seen brandishing what looks to be a vinyl record in its sleeve. This is in fact the master tape for the album. The man in question is Owen Morris, the producer. The photo was taken on Berwick Street in Soho, a London street well known for its independent record shops. The other man is BBC London's Sean Rowley.
Source: Wikipedia