The Iconic Oasis Song Noel Gallagher Admits Is One of His Least Favorites

What if your biggest song is also one of your least favorites?

That’s the predicament Noel Gallagher finds himself in. It’s not a bad place to be. For years, stadiums filled with fans who shouted the words as if their team had won the Premier League championship. Consider that Oasis’s biggest commercial success occurred during the ’90s, the peak period not only for rock bands but also for album royalties, and you’ll see why Noel smiles when he talks about this particular song in his catalog. One of his least favorite Oasis songs. The tune even non-Oasis fans know.

Don’t Look Back in Anger

Noel told MOJO magazine, “‘Wonderwall’ is one of my least favorite songs because it’s not finished. If I could somehow twist time and go back there, I’d probably pick a different song for our calling card. Probably ‘Some Might Say.’”

He said he doesn’t like the final recordings on (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?—Oasis’s second studio album. “I was writing on tour and I’d planned on finishing the songs when I got to the studio and we just never got around to it,” he said. Morning Glory is the only Oasis album where the band didn’t record demos ahead of the final tracking sessions.

(Some Might Say) It Sounds Like Trip-Hop

Liam Gallagher hated “Wonderwall” and told his brother he thought it sounded like trip-hop. Noel responded, “There speaks a man who’s never heard trip-hop.”

This led to a decision over which brother would sing which future Oasis hit.

Liam habitually walked off stage during concerts, then, and Noel wanted a solution for finishing the shows without his brother. “I was so f—-d off with him walking off stage and me having to take over and do the gig. I remember thinking, if I’m going to do this, I want a big f—ing song to sing.”

During the Morning Glory sessions, Noel told Liam he was singing either “Wonderwall” or “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” (Liam sings “Wonderwall” and Noel sings “Don’t Look Back in Anger.”) Both songs became defining anthems for Oasis, but “Wonderwall” is their most well-known song. It has been streamed more than 2 billion times on Spotify.

Today is gonna be the day

That they’re gonna throw it back to you

And by now, you should’ve somehow

Realized what you gotta do

I don’t believe that anybody

Feels the way I do about you now

What’s a Wonderwall Anyway?

On “Writing to Reach You,” the opening track to Travis’ post-Britpop 1999 album The Man Who, singer Fran Healy asks a simple question: And what’s a wonderwall anyway?

Noel initially told NME “Wonderwall” is about his then-girlfriend and future wife Meg Matthews. However, this followed the media’s gossipy speculation over who he’d written it for. The couple married in 1997 but divorced in 2001. So Noel either changed his mind or came clean about the song’s true meaning.

He blamed the media for forcing him into a corner regarding Matthews being the inspiration. The guitarist said he went along with it because “How do you tell your missus it’s not about her once she’s read it is?”

The truth, he explained to the BBC, is “Wonderwall” is about someone who doesn’t exist, an imaginary friend. According to Noel, “Wonderwall” is about a pretend friend “who’s gonna come and save you from yourself.”

Also, “Wonderwall” borrows its title from the 1968 Joe Massot-directed film of the same name. George Harrison wrote and recorded the soundtrack, titled Wonderwall Music. The film stars Jane Birkin as Penny Lane.

Roll with It

Noel Gallagher’s attitude toward the biggest Oasis single is poetic symmetry for a band famous for brotherly strife and chaos. “Wonderwall” is far from the swaggering rock and roll of Definitely Maybe, though the late-album track “Slide Away” previews what was to come.

Proving what an impressive songwriting run Noel was on during the ’90s, “Wonderwall,” considered unfinished by its author, became a generational anthem. If it had been “finished,” would it have had the same impact?

I said maybe

You’re gonna be the one that saves me

And after all

You’re my wonderwall

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