(What's the Story) Morning Glory?

(What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Studio album by Oasis
Released	2 October 1995
Recorded	March 1995, May – June 1995, Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales
Genre	Rock, Britpop
Length	50:05
Label	Creation
Producer	Owen Morris, Noel Gallagher
Professional reviews
Allmusic [1] The Austin Chronicle [2] BBC (favourable) [3] Entertainment Weekly (A-) [4] NME (7/10)[5] Robert Christgau [6] Rolling Stone [7] Sputnikmusic [8]
Oasis chronology
Definitely Maybe (1994) (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) Be Here Now (1997)
Singles from (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
"Some Might Say" Released: 30 April 1995 "Roll With It" Released: 14 August 1995 "Morning Glory" Released: 15 September 1995 "Wonderwall" Released: 30 October 1995 "Don't Look Back in Anger" Released: 19 February 1996 "Champagne Supernova" Released: 13 May 1996

(What's the Story) Morning Glory? is the second album by English rock band Oasis. It was released in October 1995. The album was Oasis' most enduring commercial success, charting at number one in the UK (staying there for 10 weeks) and number four in the U.S. The album sold 346,000 copies in its first week in the UK^[9] and has sold 23 million copies worldwide.^[10] It is the third biggest-selling album in UK chart history (with 4.4 million copies sold), behind Queen's Greatest Hits and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band respectively.^[11] The album has gone 4× platinum (4.6 million copies) in the United States.^[12]

Album singles "Some Might Say", "Roll With It", "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" were big hits in the UK, with "Some Might Say" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" both reaching the number one spot in the UK singles chart. "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova" both went #1 on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart, eventually being certified gold in the United States.^[13] The album won Best British Album at the 1996 Brit Awards.

Background and recording

Oasis achieved commercial success with the release of their debut album Definitely Maybe in 1994. That November after a performance in Hamburg, Germany, guitarist and chief songwriter Noel Gallagher performed all the songs he intended the group to record for its next album on his acoustic guitar. Guitarist Paul Arthurs said he was so awed by the quality of Gallagher's songs that he wept.^[14]

In May 1995, Oasis began recording their next album at Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth. The band recorded quickly; early on, the group averaged recording close to one song every 24 hours. Tension arose between Noel and his younger brother, singer Liam Gallagher when the former told the latter that he wanted to sing lead vocals on either "Wonderwall" or "Don't Look Back in Anger". The younger Gallagher considered this tantamount to a temporary exile from his own group. The issue dissipated momentarily as Noel was pleased with Liam's vocal take of "Wonderwall". However, tension rose due to Liam's strained attempts to sing the high notes on "Champagne Supernova". When Noel subsequently took his turn to record his vocals for "Don't Look Back in Anger", Liam went to a local pub and came back accompanied by a crowd of people while his brother was recording. The siblings then began fighting viciously; Arthurs described it as "a proper fight". As a result of the brawl, Arthurs said that Noel instructed the group to leave for London at four in the morning. At seven A.M., Arthurs called the group's management company, Ignition, to tell them that the album was cancelled. Ignition did not believe Arthurs at first and hung up on him; the company soon after realised that Arthurs was serious. Producer Owen Morris was "gutted" that sessions were called off, however, the rest of the band was not as concerned. Arthurs said he told Morris, "It'll be all right. Give [Noel] a week at home. By then it was just, 'Oh - another fight'".^[15]

The Gallagher brothers reconciled three weeks later. The group spent another two weeks working on the album, followed by post-production work in London. Morris claimed the album was recorded in 15 days; he said once the album was finished, "This album will wipe the field with any competition [. . .] It's astonishing. It's the bollocks for this decade."^[16]

Composition

John Harris commented in his music history Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock that much of the music on (What's the Story) Morning Glory? "seemed to reveal little more inspired than a string of musical hand-me-downs". Among the musical cues Harris noted on the album were Gary Glitter's "Hello, Hello I'm Back Again" ("Hello"), John Lennon's "Imagine" ("Don't Look Back in Anger"), the theme to the 1970s children's programme You and Me ("She's Electric"), and the R.E.M. song "The One I Love" ("Morning Glory"). One song, "Step Out", bore such a close resemblance to the song "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" by Stevie Wonder that it was removed from the album shortly before release due to the threat of legal action.^[17]

Despite critics who derided Noel Gallagher's appropriation of other songs, Harris commented "the fact that [Gallagher's] songs contained so many musical echoes seemed to couch the album in an air of homely reassurance". Harris believed that the "ordinary" nature of some of the album's songs "turned out to be part of its deeply populist appeal".^[9]

Release and reception

The album was preceded by two singles. The first, "Some Might Say", was released 6 months prior to the album's issue and gave the group its first number one single. The second single from the album, and its lead track, "Roll With It", was issued on 14 August. The single had a tentative release date of October 1995, to bring it close to the issue of its parent album, but its move to August 1995 led to the key moment of the Britpop movement, the chart showdown, dubbed "The Battle of Britpop". Oasis' Britpop rivals Blur, assuming Oasis would follow music industry protocol and release the single three weeks before the album, had originally planned to release the lead single for their new album The Great Escape, entitled "Country House", on 21 August 1995. Blur later learned that Oasis moved up "Roll With It"'s release to the 14th and reacted by changing the release date of "Country House" to be the same week.^[18] The chart showdown resulted with "Country House" outselling "Roll With It" to top the UK Singles Charts". Overall singles sales that week were up by 41 percent.^[19]

(What's the Story) Morning Glory? was eventually released on 2 October 1995. The album sold quickly; the Daily Mirror reported the day after release that central London HMV stores were selling copies of the album at a rate of two per minute. At the end of the first week of sales, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? had sold 347,000 copies, making it (at the time) the third fasting selling album in UK chart history, behind Michael Jackson's Bad and U2's Rattle And Hum.^[9] It was knocked off of the top spot after just one week, by Simply Red's Life. However, sales remained consistent and the album returned to the top spot for six weeks from 13 January 1996, before being temporarily knocked off the top spot for one week by The Bluetones Expecting to Fly, and then a three week run from 2 March 1996. In total, the album spent 10 weeks at number one and was the second best selling album of 1995 and 1996, behind Robson & Jerome and Alanis Morissette respectively. The album's prolonged chart success is, at least partially, attributed to "Wonderwall", which was released three weeks after its parent album, and the Mike Flowers Pops cover version released two months later. The Oasis single peaked at number two, but went on to be the band's best selling single in the UK, passing sales of 1 million^[20] and reached number one on the US Modern Rock chart (for a then-unprecedented 10 consecutive weeks), as did "Champagne Supernova", which was not issued as a single in the UK. The album's title track was issued as a radio-only single in the U.S. and a physical release in Australia. The last UK single from the album, "Don't Look Back in Anger", was released in March 1996, becoming the group's second UK Number One, going platinum^[21], and reached number 10 on the US Modern Rock Charts.

Morning Glory sold in excess of 4.3 million copies in the UK alone which propelled it to being the second biggest selling album of all time in the UK until a July 2007 update by the BPI placed it third behind Queen's Greatest Hits and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.^[12] This (as noted by John Harris in Britpop!) equated to one in four households in Britain owning a copy of the album^[22]; an example of Oasis' prominence in their home country. The album was commercially successful worldwide reaching #1 in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland and #4 in the U.S., and going Top 10 in a further seven countries. It was certified 14 times platinum by the BPI, four times platinum by the RIAA, eight times platinum by the CRIA and six times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association and is estimated to have sold 22 million copies worldwide.

The album received mostly positive reviews from critics upon its release. NME gave the album seven out of 10,^[5] and Q gave it 3 stars out of 5.^{[citation needed]} Rolling Stone gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "Oasis have discovered their feminine side" and adding "that doesn't mean they can't still rock".^[23] The album has maintained its reputation and popularity with the public in the years since its release. In 1997, Morning Glory was named the greatest album of all time in the "Music of the Millennium" poll, conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998, Q magazine readers placed it at number 1, and in 2000 it achieved the same position in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums Ever" list. In 1999, the editors of Q declared it the "album of the decade". The readers of Q placed it first again 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. In 2008, a poll conducted by Q magazine and HMV to find the best ever British album put the album in second place behind Definitely Maybe.^[24]

The success of Morning Glory catapulted Oasis from being one of the biggest bands in the United Kingdom to being one of the biggest bands in the world, with substantial international fame and considerable press coverage in the mainstream and music press. The band played several large open air concerts in the UK during 1996, including two nights at Knebworth in front of a combined audience of 250,000 people (125,000 each night);^[25] at the time, they were the biggest gigs ever held for a single band on UK soil.

Packaging

The cover photo was taken on Berwick Street in Soho, London,^[26] a London street known for its independent record shops and features two men walking - Brian Cannon, art director and Sean Rowley.^[27]

Track listing

All songs written by Noel Gallagher, except where stated.

1. "Hello" – 3:22 (Gallagher, Gary Glitter, Mike Leander)
2. "Roll with It" – 3:59
3. "Wonderwall" – 4:18
4. "Don't Look Back in Anger" – 4:47
5. "Hey Now!" – 5:41
6. Untitled (aka "The Swamp Song - Excerpt 1") – 0:44
7. "Some Might Say" – 5:28
8. "Cast No Shadow" – 4:51
9. "She's Electric" – 3:40
10. "Morning Glory" – 5:03
11. Untitled (aka "The Swamp Song - Excerpt 2") – 0:40
12. "Champagne Supernova" – 7:30

Notes

• Tracks 6 and 11 are officially untitled. The track listing displays no title for these songs, merely a blank space (although in the Mexican and cassette editions of the album they both appear as "The Swamp Song"). 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 seventh track on the album, immediately after the 44-second untitled track. It was supposed to be Bonehead's lead singer debut. In the end Noel sang the song as Arthurs had been nervous about his first vocal performance and when Liam took him for some drinks to calm his nerves they overdid it- samples of their drunken singing were used on the track. Noel claims to enjoy the song for its comedic value "Particularly the way he sings it, because he's beyond tone deaf." He highlights it as Oasis' "Ringo track".

Singles box set

The (What's the Story) Morning Glory? box set was released on 4 November 1996, featuring four discs of singles, including B-sides, and one disc of interviews. The album charted at number 24 on the UK Singles Chart.^[28]

Track listing

All songs written by Noel Gallagher, except "Cum on Feel the Noize" by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea; "Step Out" co-written by Stevie Wonder, Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy.

Disc one

1. "Interviews" – 16:14

Disc two

1. "Don't Look Back in Anger" – 4:47
2. "Step Out" – 3:40
3. "Underneath the Sky" – 3:20
4. "Cum On Feel the Noize" – 5:09

Disc three

1. "Wonderwall" – 4:19
2. "Round Are Way" – 5:42
3. "The Swamp Song" – 4:15
4. "The Masterplan" – 5:23

Disc four

1. "Some Might Say" – 5:28
2. "Talk Tonight" – 4:21
3. "Acquiesce" – 4:24
4. "Headshrinker" – 4:38

Disc five

1. "Roll With It" – 4:00
2. "It's Better People" – 3:59
3. "Rockin' Chair" – 4:36
4. "Live Forever" (live at Glastonbury Festival 1995) – 4:40

Personnel

• Liam Gallagher – vocals.
• Noel Gallagher – lead guitar, vocals, piano, mellotron, e-bow, production
• Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs – rhythm guitar, piano, mellotron
• Paul McGuigan – "The bass player"
• Alan White – drums, percussion (except on "Some Might Say")
• Tony McCarroll – drums on "Some Might Say"
• Paul Weller – lead guitar and backing vocals on "Champagne Supernova" and harmonica on track 6 and 11.
• Owen Morris – production
• Neil Dorfsman – multichannel mixing (SACD version)
• David Swope – assistant mixing
• Vlado Meller – mastering
• Michael Spencer Jones – photography
• Brian Cannon – artwork, design
• Mathew Sankey – assistant design

Chart positions

Certifications

• United Kingdom (BPI): 14x Platinum (24 September 2004)^[30] (4.4 million)
• United States (RIAA): 4x Platinum (8 November 1996)^[12] (4.6 million)
• Canada (CRIA): 8x Platinum (800,000)
• Australia (ARIA Charts): 6x Platinum (420,000)^[31]
• Spain (SGAE) : 2X Platinum (250,000)
• Germany (IFPI): Gold (100,000)
• Netherlands (NVPI): Gold (1996) (30,000)
• Norway (IFPI) : Platinum (1997) (30,000)
• Switzerland: Gold (15.000)^[32]
• Finland (IFPI) : Gold (27.540)^[33]

See also

• List of best-selling albums worldwide

References

• Harris, John. Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock. Da Capo Press, 2004. ISBN 0-306-81367-X

Notes