Don't Look Back in Anger

Writing and recording

Noel was so excited of the potential of the song when he first wrote it that he used an acoustic set to perform a work-in-progress version, without the second verse and a few other slight lyrical differences, at an Oasis concert at the Sheffield Arena on 22 April 1995. He said before playing that he'd only written it the previous Tuesday (18 April 1995) and that he didn't even have a title for it yet. The title was picked as a reference to the 1979 David Bowie song "Look Back In Anger" from the seminal art rock album Lodger, with Bowie's work being a massive Oasis influence.

Noel said of the song, "[It] reminds me of a cross between "All the Young Dudes" and [something] the Beatles might have done." Of the character "Sally" referred to in the song he commented, "I don't actually know anybody called Sally. It's just a word that fit, y'know, might as well throw a girl's name in there. It's gotta guarantee somebody a shag off a bird called Sally, hasn't it?"

Noel Gallagher (from Uncut magazine August 2007): "We were in Paris playing with the Verve, and I had the chords for that song and started writing it. We were due to play 2 days later. Our first-ever big arena gig, it's called Sheffield Arena now. At the sound check, I was strumming away on the acoustic guitar, and our kid (Liam Gallagher) said, 'What's that you're singin'?' I wasn't singing anyway, I was just making it up. And our kid said, 'Are you singing 'So Sally can wait'.' And I was like – that's genius! So I started singing, 'So Sally can wait.' I remember going back to the dressing room and writing it out. It all came really quickly after that." Noel claims that the character "Lyla", from Oasis' 2005 single is the sister of Sally. In the interview on the DVD released with the special edition of Stop the Clocks, Noel also revealed that a girl approached him and asked him if Sally was the same girl as in the Stone Roses' track "Sally Cinnamon". Noel replied that he'd never thought of that but thought it was good anyway.

Noel admits that certain lines from the song are lifted from John Lennon: "I got this tape in the United States that had apparently been burgled from the Dakota Hotel and someone had found these cassettes. Lennon was starting to record his memoirs on tape. He's going on about 'trying to start a revolution from me bed, because they said the brains I had went to my head.' I thought 'Thank you, I'll take that'!" "Revolution from me bed" most likely refers to Lennon's notorious bed-ins in 1969. The piano in the introduction of the song strongly resembles Lennon's "Imagine", as well as "Watching the Wheels". As Oasis are often criticised for borrowing parts of other artists' songs for their own, Noel Gallagher commented on the intro's similarity to "Imagine" saying, "In the case of Don't Look Back in Anger – I mean, the opening piano riff's Imagine. 50% of it's put in there to wind people up, and the other 50% is saying 'look, this is how songs like Don't Look Back in Anger come about – because they're inspired by songs like Imagine'. And no matter what people might think, there will be some 13 year old kid out there who'll read an interview and think 'Imagine? I've never heard that song' and he might go and buy the album, you know what I mean?" Gallagher also admits that he was under the influence of illegal substances when he wrote the song and to this day he claims he does not know what it means.

Noel once admitted, on the Frank Skinner show, to telling Liam that he wanted to sing "Wonderwall". On hearing "Wonderwall", Liam demanded that he should sing it. Noel reluctantly agreed on the understanding that he could sing the next song on the album ("Don't Look Back in Anger"). However, in reality, Noel only ever really wanted to sing "Don't Look Back in Anger" and used "Wonderwall" as a bargaining tool, since he knew Liam would want to sing it.

Live performances

The song became a favourite at Oasis' live performances. Noel encouraged the crowd to sing along and often kept quiet during the first chorus, allowing the fans instead to sing along while he plays the song's guitar part. During the Dig Out Your Soul Tour, Noel Gallagher abandoned the song's previous, full-band live arrangement in favour of a much slower, primarily acoustic arrangement in a lower key (B major). From 2008 through Oasis' breakup, the song was performed by Gallagher on his Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar backed up by Gem Archer on electric guitar, and Chris Sharrock playing tambourine. On 11 and 12 July 2009, during performances of the song at London's Wembley Stadium, Gallagher didn't sing a word; instead, he stood back, played guitar, and allowed the crowd to sing the entire song. He has since reverted to the original arrangement when playing the song with his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

Oasis became the first act since the Jam to perform two songs on the same showing of Top of the Pops, performing "Don't Look Back in Anger", followed by their cover of Slade's "Cum on Feel the Noize", also on the single.

Release

The single cover is a homage to the incident where Ringo Starr briefly left the Beatles during the recording of The White Album; after the other three Beatles members successfully persuaded him to return, George Harrison decorated Ringo's drum kit in red, white, and blue flowers to show their appreciation.

The B-side "Step Out" was originally intended for the (What's the Story) Morning Glory? album but was taken off after Stevie Wonder requested 10% of the royalties as the chorus bore a similarity to his hit "Uptight (Everything's Alright)". Also, because of this, Wonder, Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy received credit for writing the song, along with Noel.

Its charting coincided with its usage at the end of the final episode of Our Friends in the North, which, upon production, used the track without knowledge it was going to be released as a single.

Critical reception

"Don't Look Back in Anger" was met with high critical praise and it became a commercial hit. Billboard said of the tune, "Noel Gallagher reveals a deft sense of timing and craft that turn his improprieties into masterful pop gems."

In a 2006 readers' poll conducted by Q magazine, "Don't Look Back in Anger" was voted the 20th best song of all time. In May 2007, NME magazine placed "Don't Look Back in Anger" at number 14 in its list of the "50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever".

Chart performance

The song was a big hit by claiming the No.1 spot for both British Isles countries Ireland and the United Kingdom, and it was a moderate success by reaching the top 60 on various countries. The song was the 10th-biggest-selling single of 1996 in the UK. It is Oasis's third biggest selling single in the UK with sales of 900,000, going Platinum in the process.

"Don't Look Back in Anger" is also Oasis's sixth biggest Billboard hit in the US, reaching the number 10 spot on the Modern Rock Tracks for the week of 22 June 1996.

Music video

The video for the song was directed by Nigel Dick and features Patrick Macnee, the actor who played John Steed in the 1960s television series The Avengers, apparently a favourite of Oasis. It features the band being driven to a mansion similar to the Playboy Mansion and performing the song there; a group of women dressed in white also occasionally lip sync to the lyrics. While filming the video, drummer Alan White met future wife Liz Atkins. They married on 13 August 1997 at Studley Priory Hotel in Oxfordshire, but later divorced.

Media

The song was included as the closing track on Oasis' compilation album, Stop the Clocks. It is available for the music video game series Rock Band as a downloadable track. On the Wii version of the original Rock Band game, this song is included. It can also be found on-disc in the 2014 edition of Rocksmith.

The song has been used in a multiple television programmes since its original release:

Covers

The song was covered by the Wurzels among others for an album of covers of songs seemingly inappropriate to their West Country image and style, and has become one of their more frequently performed numbers.

Opera group G4 covered the song during series one of The X Factor.

The song was covered by Tori Amos on 6 June 2005 in Manchester at her Beekeeper tour. A soundboard quality solo piano version of the song was officially released on the live recording 2005-06-05: Manchester Apollo, Manchester, UK

An Electronic/Lounge/Jazz version by Styles Project - 90s Lounge Essentials (2007) containing covers by various artist of songs from the 90s.

Glay covered the song for their 2011 album Rare Collectives Vol.4.

The Killers covered this song at V Festival 2012. It has also been covered by Devendra Banhart.

Shane Watson released a video of himself covering this song in 2013.

Spoofs

The UK comedy duo Hale and Pace did an Oasis skit as 'Oaday' where the song featured as 'Don't Look Back You W*nker'.

Personnel

Track listing

All songs were written by Noel Gallagher, except where noted.

1. "Don't Look Back in Anger"  – 4:47
2. "Step Out" (Gallagher/Wonder/Cosby/Moy)  – 3:40
3. "Underneath the Sky"  – 3:20
4. "Cum On Feel the Noize" (Holder/Lea)  – 5:09

1. "Don't Look Back in Anger"  – 4:47
2. "Step Out" (Gallagher/Wonder/Cosby/Moy)  – 3:40

1. "Don't Look Back in Anger"  – 4:47
2. "Step Out" (Gallagher/Wonder/Cosby/Moy)  – 3:40
3. "Underneath the Sky"  – 3:20

1. "Don't Look Back in Anger"  – 4:47
2. "Step Out" (Gallagher/Wonder/Cosby/Moy)  – 3:40

1. "Don't Look Back in Anger"  – 4:47
2. "Cum on Feel the Noize" (Holder/Lea)  – 5:09