In honor of the 30th anniversary today (Oct. 30) of Oasis’ era-defining “Wonderwall,” the group has announced a Dec. 12 release date for a (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? seven-inch singles boxed set, which replicates a 1996 CD collection of the same material housed in a cigarette-style box. A similar collection for singles from the band’s 1994 debut, Definitely Maybe, was released last year.
The Morning Glory box will include 2014 remastered versions of “Wonderwall,” “Some Might Say,” “Roll With It” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” all paired with their original respective b-sides “Round Are Way,” “Talk Tonight,” “It’s Better People” and “Step Out.”
As SPIN surmised in a 2015 feature ranking the 95 best alternative rock songs of 1995, “Wonderwall” is “a love song that never actually talks about romance, in a way that leaves it applicable to a lover, a friend, or — naturally — a sibling, unifying all of us under four capo’d acoustic chords, expertly deployed strings and the most distinctive Mancunian accent in rock history. In era where American rock was dominated by self-doubt and dread, its message of assurance — even a hesitant one, from far away — was bold enough to survive in the public consciousness long enough to see a time in which resigned angst was no longer the dominant mode of cultural expression.”
“I knew with that song and the momentum the band had actually built up, that we were going to sell a lot of records,” Creation Records founder Alan McGee told SPIN in 2020 about his first impressions of the song. “But I even got that wrong. I actually thought when I heard ‘Wonderwall,’ god, we’re gonna sell 10 million, and we sold 23 million. I got it wrong.”
Morning Glory was itself reissued earlier this year in a 30th anniversary deluxe edition, featuring new acoustic versions of several classic tracks. Oasis’ 2020 live album, Familiar to Millions, will also be back in the marketplace on Nov. 14 in a variety of exclusive vinyl formats.
The Noel- and Liam Gallagher-led band is winding down its massively successful reunion tour over the next several weeks in Australia and South America. The group performs tomorrow (Oct. 31) for the first of three sold-out shows at Melbourne’s 53,000-capacity Marvel Stadium.