5: Roll With It (1995)
A single that was part of the biggest chart battle of all time and, infamously, lost… Roll With It was the spark that lit a fire under the now-legendary Blur vs Oasis rivalry and had to settle for second place behind their rivals’ Country House when both tracks were released in the same week. The tension went beyond this race to be Number 1, with the bands generally disliking each other for years to come. The truce nobody thought would ever happen did come along eventually, and Noel is now pals with Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who he’d previously called “condescending”.
Oddly, The battle for Number 1 wasn’t as close as you might think – Blur romped to victory with Country House finishing almost 50,000 copies ahead. It's sold 520,000 copies.
4: Whatever (1994)
Another anthemic song, Whatever was something of an oddity among Oasis singles, as it didn’t feature on any studio album. Intended to bridge the gap between debut album Definitely Maybe and follow-up (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, Whatever saw the band go Top 3 for the very first time – every single they released after would chart no lower until Who Feels Love broke the run in April 2000.
It wasn’t until a greatest hits collection in 2009 that Whatever was finally included on an album and available digitally for the very first time – it even broke back into the Top 75 that very week. Its sales tally stands at 553,000.
3: D’You Know What I Mean (1997)
Few albums have been more highly anticipated than Oasis’s third album Be Here Now. Its lead single D’You Know What I Mean was an eight-minute epic, with a blockbuster-type video and the band turned up to full-on swagger. Selling over 370,000 copies in its first week on sale, D’You Know What I Mean gave Oasis its first pair of consecutive Number 1s – they’d go on to score two more. D’You Know What I Mean was the fifth bestselling single of 1997 and has shifted 745,000 copies.
2: Don’t Look Back In Anger (1996)
The band’s second Number 1 was their first chart-topper to feature Noel on lead vocals. The chorus’s “So Sally can waaaaait” actually came about by accident. Noel was strumming away singing nothing in particular, when Liam asked him who Sally was, thinking he was singing “So Sally can wait”. Noel liked it so much it became the actual lyrics. And it was a good shout, Don’t Look Back In Anger was the fourth bestselling single of 1996 and has shifted 948,000 copies.
1: Wonderwall (1995)
Wonderwall, Noel Gallagher’s love letter to his then girlfriend, is the band’s top seller but never reaching Number 1. According to legend, despite the song’s subject, Liam insisted on singing it – he obviously knew an anthem when he heard one. Trouble was, it was such an anthem that the band eventually got sick of having it sang back to them at concerts. If it’s any comfort to Oasis, it is one of the biggest selling songs of all time.
Wonderwall sold over 140,000 copies in its first week on sale. It finally passed the million mark in 2009. It's shifted 1.34 million copies.
The Official Top 20 Biggest Selling Oasis songs:
TRACK PEAK YEAR
1 WONDERWALL 2 1995
2 DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER 1 1996
3 D'YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN 1 1997
4 WHATEVER 3 1994
5 ROLL WITH IT 2 1995
6 SOME MIGHT SAY 1 1995
7 STOP CRYING YOUR HEART OUT 2 2002
8 STAND BY ME 2 1997
9 LIVE FOREVER 10 1994
10 CIGARETTES & ALCOHOL 7 1994
11 GO LET IT OUT 1 2000
12 LITTLE BY LITTLE 2 2002
13 ALL AROUND THE WORLD 1 1998
14 SUPERSONIC 31 1994
15 THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IDLE 1 2005
16 CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA N/A 1995
17 THE HINDU TIMES 1 2002
18 SHAKERMAKER 11 1994
19 LYLA 1 2005
20 SONGBIRD 3 2003
© 2016 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
A single that was part of the biggest chart battle of all time and, infamously, lost… Roll With It was the spark that lit a fire under the now-legendary Blur vs Oasis rivalry and had to settle for second place behind their rivals’ Country House when both tracks were released in the same week. The tension went beyond this race to be Number 1, with the bands generally disliking each other for years to come. The truce nobody thought would ever happen did come along eventually, and Noel is now pals with Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who he’d previously called “condescending”.
Oddly, The battle for Number 1 wasn’t as close as you might think – Blur romped to victory with Country House finishing almost 50,000 copies ahead. It's sold 520,000 copies.
4: Whatever (1994)
Another anthemic song, Whatever was something of an oddity among Oasis singles, as it didn’t feature on any studio album. Intended to bridge the gap between debut album Definitely Maybe and follow-up (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, Whatever saw the band go Top 3 for the very first time – every single they released after would chart no lower until Who Feels Love broke the run in April 2000.
It wasn’t until a greatest hits collection in 2009 that Whatever was finally included on an album and available digitally for the very first time – it even broke back into the Top 75 that very week. Its sales tally stands at 553,000.
3: D’You Know What I Mean (1997)
Few albums have been more highly anticipated than Oasis’s third album Be Here Now. Its lead single D’You Know What I Mean was an eight-minute epic, with a blockbuster-type video and the band turned up to full-on swagger. Selling over 370,000 copies in its first week on sale, D’You Know What I Mean gave Oasis its first pair of consecutive Number 1s – they’d go on to score two more. D’You Know What I Mean was the fifth bestselling single of 1997 and has shifted 745,000 copies.
2: Don’t Look Back In Anger (1996)
The band’s second Number 1 was their first chart-topper to feature Noel on lead vocals. The chorus’s “So Sally can waaaaait” actually came about by accident. Noel was strumming away singing nothing in particular, when Liam asked him who Sally was, thinking he was singing “So Sally can wait”. Noel liked it so much it became the actual lyrics. And it was a good shout, Don’t Look Back In Anger was the fourth bestselling single of 1996 and has shifted 948,000 copies.
1: Wonderwall (1995)
Wonderwall, Noel Gallagher’s love letter to his then girlfriend, is the band’s top seller but never reaching Number 1. According to legend, despite the song’s subject, Liam insisted on singing it – he obviously knew an anthem when he heard one. Trouble was, it was such an anthem that the band eventually got sick of having it sang back to them at concerts. If it’s any comfort to Oasis, it is one of the biggest selling songs of all time.
Wonderwall sold over 140,000 copies in its first week on sale. It finally passed the million mark in 2009. It's shifted 1.34 million copies.
The Official Top 20 Biggest Selling Oasis songs:
TRACK PEAK YEAR
1 WONDERWALL 2 1995
2 DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER 1 1996
3 D'YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN 1 1997
4 WHATEVER 3 1994
5 ROLL WITH IT 2 1995
6 SOME MIGHT SAY 1 1995
7 STOP CRYING YOUR HEART OUT 2 2002
8 STAND BY ME 2 1997
9 LIVE FOREVER 10 1994
10 CIGARETTES & ALCOHOL 7 1994
11 GO LET IT OUT 1 2000
12 LITTLE BY LITTLE 2 2002
13 ALL AROUND THE WORLD 1 1998
14 SUPERSONIC 31 1994
15 THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IDLE 1 2005
16 CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA N/A 1995
17 THE HINDU TIMES 1 2002
18 SHAKERMAKER 11 1994
19 LYLA 1 2005
20 SONGBIRD 3 2003
© 2016 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
