"All Around the World" is a song by the English rock bandOasis. It was written by the band's lead guitarist and principal songwriter Noel Gallagher. Released on 12 January 1998 as the third single from their third studio albumBe Here Now, it is the longest song ever recorded by Oasis. The song peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart and earned a Silver certification. This was the last Oasis single to be released on the Creation Records label. The song also reached number 15 on the BillboardAlternative Songs chart. "All Around the World"—nearly ten minutes long—is embellished with string and horn pieces, and is followed by the two-minute-long instrumental "All Around the World ". Upon its release, the reviews were generally positive. As with many Oasis songs it sends the message that "everything's gonna be okay".
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 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 Two days later I superseded it by about 50 fuckin' times.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". The final version premièred on 11 August 1997 on BBC Radio 1's The Evening Session hosted by Steve Lamacq, ten days before the release of the album, alongside the album tracks "The Girl in the Dirty Shirt" and "Be Here Now". 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 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".
Single
"All Around the World" currently holds the record of being the longest song to reach number one in the UK. The photograph on the front of the single was taken on Bournemouth beach in Dorset, England.
Reprise
A two-minute, ten-second instrumental reprise of the song closes the Be Here Now album. The reprise ends with the sound of a door being slammed, which has been referred to since as "the sound of the end of the Britpop-era Oasis".
Keeping with the feel of the song, the music video was also a lavish affair. Featuring the band in a yellow spaceship, the animated piece saw them travel through a world akin to The Beatles' Yellow Submarine film. The video was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and took 24 computer animators and 6 months to make. It was nominated for a Grammy in 1997.
