“Wonderwall” by Oasis

"Wonderwall" came out in 1995 as the fourth single from (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, the second Oasis album, and it's the moment the band's swagger drops just long enough to let some tenderness in. Noel Gallagher wrote it and co-produced it with Owen Morris, and he has called it a song about an imaginary friend who shows up to rescue you from yourself. The title tips its hat to George Harrison's Wonderwall Music, and the first plan was to cut it against a wall outside Rockfield Studios before everyone thought better of it and headed indoors.

Paul Arthurs strums the acoustic guitar that drives it and Alan White keeps the drums and percussion loping and patient, while Noel stacks up electric guitar, bass, piano, mellotron, the ghostly hum of an ebow and the backing vocals. Liam Gallagher rattles a tambourine and sings it with that nasal, yearning sneer of his, making a plea sound like a dare.

It went top 10 in 20 countries and became their biggest American hit, the only time Oasis cracked the top 40 of the Hot 100. Nigel Dick's video won British Video of the Year at the 1996 Brit Awards, in October 2020 it was the first song of the 1990s to pass a billion Spotify streams, and at the 2026 World Cup it became the anthem of England's national football team.

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