History
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 Two days later I superseded it by about 50 fuckin' times.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".
Noel described the song shortly before the release of the album: "I wrote this one ages ago, before "Whatever". It was twelve minutes long then. It was a matter of being able to afford to record it. But now we can get away with the 36-piece orchestra. And the longer the better as far as I'm concerned. If it's good. I can see what people are going to say, but fuck 'em, basically."
"The lyrics are teeny-poppy. But there are three key changes towards the end. Imagine how much better Hey Jude would have been with three key changes towards the end. I like the ambition of it, all that time ago. What was all that about when we didn't even have our first single out? Gin and tonics, eh?"
The harmonica pieces on the track were performed by Mark Feltham. Backing vocals were provided by Noel and Liam's then wives, Meg Mathews and Patsy Kensit, along with Richard Ashcroft of The Verve.
When it was suggested that Oasis take legal action against pop band Hear'Say for their first single's ("Pure and Simple") uncanny similarity to "All Around the World", Noel simply laughed at the hypocrisy of such an act from a man who was famous for "borrowing" from other artists. Portions of the song's chorus were used as background music for AT&T's advertising campaign for "The New AT&T".
All Around the World currently holds the record of longest (in terms of song length) number one of all time in the UK.
Read more about this topic: All Around The World (Oasis Song)
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