Songoftheday 2/27/20 - And all the roads we have to walk are winding, and all the lights that lead us there are blinding...

"Wonderwall" - Oasis
from the album (What's The Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's song of the day comes from the British rock band Oasis, led by brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher. Their debut album Definitely Maybe scored the band a top-40 pop radio hit in America in the spring of 1995 with "Live Forever". Meanwhile, that album landed four top-40 hits in their native UK that year. At Christmastime, the band released a one-off single, "Whatever", that was in the running for the coveted "#1 Xmas hit" of that year, but ended up at #3 and with a lawsuit from Monty Python member Neil Innes. In the spring of 1995, the group returned with the lead single from what would be their sophomore effort, (What's The Story) Morning Glory?. "Some Might Say" landed the Gallaghers their first British number one single, and while it also went top ten in Ireland (#3) and Sweden (#7), it wasn't promoted anywhere else, especially the States, as "Live Forever" was just peaking over here, and the record company was still issuing singles from that record. That also applied to their second release from the set in the summer of 1995, "Roll With It", which was notable for being promoted in the "Battle of Britpop" where the single was in competition with the band Blur and their single "Country House" for #1 that week on the official British chart (Oasis lost).

So by the time Oasis' second album would come out, American radio was pretty much caught up and finished promoting the debut. The "title" track "Morning Glory" was released as a teaser single to radio, and hit #24 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart in October, a couple weeks before the album dropped (it was released as a physical single Down Under reaching the top-40 in Australia at #25 and New Zealand at #29). That set the stage for the next single from the band, which would become their biggest American success. "Wonderwall", written by Noel who produced the track with Owen Morris, became an instant hit on both sides of the pond, and Oasis found themselves true A-listers here, with a title inspired by their icon George Harrison's album Wonderwall Music. Liam sang lead on the ballad, which was a gritty yet sweet love song. The music video had to substitute bass player Paul McGuigan with temp replacement Scott McLeod when Paul left for health issues...

"Wonderwall" became Oasis' first and only top ten pop hit in the U.S. in March of 1996. The song was a massive success on rock radio, spending ten weeks at #1 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, while also climbing to #9 on their Mainstream Rock format list. It also crossed over to their "easy listening" format tallies, peaking at #33 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #30 at Adult Top-40. Internationally, the single surprisingly stopped at #2 in their native England, kept from the top by British TV actor duo Robson & Jerome; it did top the chart Down Under in both Australia and New Zealand. "Wonderwall" also reached the top ten in Ireland (#2), Iceland (#2), Canada (#5), Norway (#5), Austria (#6), Belgium (#7F/#7W), the Netherlands (#8), Denmark (#9), and France (#10). In Finland it just missed at #11, and in Sweden at #12, while in Germany, it peaked at #17, as it did in Switzerland. At the 1997 Grammy Awards, "Wonderwall" was nominated in two categories, losing Best Rock Vocal Group/Duo Performance to the Dave Matthews Band for "So Much To Say", and Best Rock Song, which went to Tracy Chapman for "Give Me One Reason".

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Two months after the release of Oasis' "Wonderwall", British camp "easy-listening" act the Mike Flowers Pops released a lounge-worthy cover of the song that ended up also going to #2 on the British chart, as well as going top ten in Ireland (#10) and Sweden (#5), the latter country doing even better than the original. It was a running joke between Noel and BBC Radio that this was the "original" version of the song...

Back to Oasis in concert in 1996...

That same year, they taped an episode of MTV Unplugged, though Noel had to sing alone since Liam was too drunk had a sore throat...

Next up is the band appearing on Jools Holland in 2000...

And in concert at Wembley in 2000...

 
The next year, alt-rock singer/songwriter Ryan Adams started to perform a delicate cover of the song with just acoustic guitar that would eventually find itself on his 2003 album Love Is Hell. It was praised by Noel himself...

Oasis' played Glastonbury in 2004 with Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey filling in on drums, and "Wonderwall" was a highlight of a very shaky set...

Here they are back at Wembley in 2008 in better form...

 In 2016, country group Little Big Town took "Wonderwall" to the television series Greatest Hits, and the results almost sound like Sade's "Ordinary Love"...

 And finally, here's Noel (with his band the High Flying Birds) with a take probably inspired by Adams...

Up tomorrow: British grunge band are playing with vaseline?