Great Forgotten Songs #27 – Oasis “All Around The World”

“All Around the World” is a song by the English rock band Oasis, written by the band’s lead guitarist and principal songwriter Noel Gallagher. Released on 12 January 1998, the track peaked at number one in the UK Singles Chart; it is the longest number one single in UK history.

The single version of the track is 18 seconds longer than the album version found on Be Here Now). It is also the longest song ever recorded by Oasis. The single went gold in the UK. This was the last Oasis single to be released on the Creation Records label. The song also reached #15 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart.

“All Around The World” by Oasis

Be Here Now (1997)

The song was one of the first to be written by Noel, and there are recorded sessions of the band rehearsing it at the Boardwalk club as early as 1992.

However, despite Noel’s fondness for the song, it did not appear on their first two albums—Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?—as he wanted to wait until the band could afford to produce the song in the extravagant manner in which it was to eventually appear. From time to time, Gallagher has claimed that this is one of the best songs he has ever written.

As early as Spring 1994, the final production sound for this song was envisaged. On the interview Wibbling Rivalry, Noel Gallagher said of the song, “With Supersonic, I worried I was never going to write another song after that ‘cos I thought, ‘It sounds that good’… Two days later I superseded it by about 50 fuckin’ times.

The reason we haven’t recorded that song is because there isn’t enough money in Creation Records’ bank balance to pay for the production of that record. When we do that record…” Noel also added when asked if there would be an orchestra on it, “Orchestras, man? It’s not got to be one, it’s got to be two”.

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