“All Around the World” predates the first Oasis album, Definitely Maybe. Though Noel Gallagher considered it to be one of his best songs, he didn’t think Creation Records had the budget to produce the track the way he envisioned.
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The ambitious tune is nearly 10 minutes long and features an orchestra and multiple key changes. It fits the excesses of the band’s third album, Be Here Now (1997), and became the longest single to top the UK charts.
Stand By Me
If “Don’t Look Back in Anger” was Gallagher’s attempt at John Lennon’s “Imagine,” “All Around the World” seems to aim for The Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”
Paul McCartney’s 1968 classic clocks in at just over seven minutes. Long for its time, though Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” had already upended industry norms for the length of a radio single a few years earlier.
But Oasis was always ambitious. What makes Definitely Maybe so extraordinary is how it sounds like a stadium band bursting at the seams. They immediately sounded bigger than the venues they played in then.
Additionally, “All Around the World” stands apart from the uneven and bloated songs on Be Here Now. Following (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and Definitely Maybe, the third album suffered from too much of everything—success, drugs, a hefty budget, tabloids, and the band’s oversaturation in the market.
Universal Anthems
Still, Gallagher’s biggest anthems, “Wonderwall,” “Champagne Supernova,” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” helped Oasis reach stadium heights. And the immense demand for another Oasis album persisted. “All Around the World” fits the broad escapism of those songs. But it also marked an end to the band’s peak period.
It’s a bit early in the midnight hour for me
To go through all the things that I wanna be
I don’t believe in everything I see
You know I’m blind so why d’you disagree?
Eventually, bassist Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan and guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs quit. Only Noel and his younger brother Liam remained as original members.
Take me away ’cause I just don’t wanna stay
And the lies you made me say
Are getting deeper every day
These are crazy days but they make me shine
Time keeps rolling by
Anti-Grunge
Britpop emerged as a reaction against the despair of American grunge. While Seattle bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam topped the charts with angsty hits, Oasis, Blur, and Suede offered an escape from alt-rock boredom and gloom.
“All Around the World” echoes the peace-and-love sentiments of the 1960s.
All around the world
You’ve gotta spread the word
Tell ’em what you’ve heard
You’re gonna make a better day
Noel co-produced the song with Owen Morris. A wall-of-sound production fills with dense layers of guitars, “la, la, la” backing vocals, strings, horns, and Mark Feltham’s distant harmonica. Also, the Gallaghers’ then-wives—Meg Mathews and Patsy Kensit—sang backing vocals on the recording.
While the song fades, Liam repeats, Please don’t cry / Never say die. It continues Noel’s initial response to grunge on “Live Forever.” An additional two minutes was cut from the outro of “All Around the World” and turned into the reprise that closes Be Here Now.
Bitter Sweet Symphony
The Verve released Urban Hymns a month after Be Here Now. Depending on how you look at it, The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” is either the last great Britpop anthem or the first great post-Britpop one.
However, Richard Ashcroft was in the studio while Oasis tracked “All Around the World” and lent additional backing vocals. (It’s unclear if Ashcroft’s vocals made the final cut.)
Either way, it sounds like a farewell. Oasis had opened for The Verve in 1993 on a UK tour. Their connection continued as Noel dedicated “Cast No Shadow” to Ashcroft. The song appeared on (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? which continued Oasis’s commercial rise.
Meanwhile, The Verve broke up following the release of A Northern Soul. Ashcroft quickly reassembled his band to record what became a masterpiece, Urban Hymns.
British indie rock bands in the 1990s were known for grandiosity. An album of “hymns” and a song with “symphony” in its title speaks to the swagger. So if you’re Oasis, and you’re unknowingly closing a chapter, the epic “All Around the World” is a good way to go.
Photo by Paul Bergen/Redferns
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