“The Riverboat Song” by Ocean Colour Scene

"The Riverboat Song" was the Island single that opened the door for Ocean Colour Scene in February 1996, and for their album Moseley Shoals behind it. It's a lumbering, swaggering thing in 6/4 time, and it wears its debt in plain sight: the main riff and a handful of the words come straight from Led Zeppelin's "Four Sticks". Brendan Lynch produced it with the band, and the writing credit goes to Simon Fowler, Steve Cradock, Damon Minchella and Oscar Harrison.

Its secret weapon was Chris Evans. The Radio 1 DJ hammered it on his shows and used it to bring guests on for TFI Friday, and it climbed to 15 in the UK, clearing a path for "You've Got It Bad", "The Day We Caught the Train" and the album itself. New Zealand took to it too, if more modestly.

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