“Acquiesce” by Oasis

"Acquiesce" started life in 1995 as a mere B-side, tucked behind "Some Might Say", the Oasis single that gave them their first UK number one. Noel Gallagher wrote it stranded on a broken-down train on the way to a studio in Wales to record the A-side, four hours of nowhere to go, having scribbled down the title after hearing someone use the word on the phone.

It's the rare Oasis track where both brothers take the mic: Liam snarls the verses and Noel takes the chorus, because, as Noel tells it, Liam couldn't reach the high notes. Everyone assumed it was about the two of them, but Noel has said it isn't, and Paul Du Noyer's notes for The Masterplan, the 1998 B-sides collection where it resurfaced, call it a song about friendship in general.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.