"Stand by Me" is a song by the English rock bandOasis, written by lead guitarist, Noel Gallagher. It was released on 22 September 1997 as the second single from the band's third studio albumBe Here Now. The song peaked at number two in the UK charts in September 1997, being kept from the top spot by the record-breaking Elton John single "Candle in the Wind 1997", which was re-recorded and released in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, who had died three weeks before the release of "Stand by Me". Despite this, "Stand by Me" still went gold in the UK, and would eventually reach platinum status in 2019. It ended up at number 46 on the end of year charts in the United Kingdom for 1997. The song also reached number two in Ireland and reached the top 10 in Finland, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
History
Noel Gallagher claims to have written the song whilst suffering from food poisoning when he first moved to London. His mother Peggy would phone him to check on him and repeatedly told him to ensure he was eating properly. This spurred Gallagher to cook himself a proper British Sunday dinner, which resulted in a bout of food poisoning. In a 1997 interview promoting Be Here Now, Noel Gallagher had the following to say: "It starts, 'Made a meal and threw it up on Sunday'. When I first moved to London me mam kept on ringing up and asking was I eating properly. Yes, Mam. So I tried to cook a Sunday roast and puked up for two days with food poisoning. It was back to Pot Noodles after that." The title for the song probably comes from the Ben E. King song "Stand by Me", which was covered by the Gallaghers' idol John Lennon. In a characteristic example of Noel Gallagher lifting elements from songs of which he is fond, the rousing sequence of chord changes between the repeated chorus lyrics 'Stand by me/Nobody knows the way it's gonna be' bears a remarkable similarity to a similar chord sequence in Mott The Hoople's "All the Young Dudes", acknowledged by Gallagher: "It's a bit like "Live Forever", I suppose, with a touch of "All the Young Dudes" in the background—though I made sure I changed the chords."
Live performances
Due to Noel Gallagher's general dislike of Be Here Now, "Stand by Me" was rarely played live by the band at their concerts after the Be Here Now Tour, as it was Noel who usually decided the set lists for Oasis' tours. A live version of the song from this tour can be found on the double-CD version of Familiar to Millions. A well-known acoustic version of "Stand by Me" was shown on television the night before the release of Be Here Now as part of a BBC One documentary, featuring Noel, Liam Gallagher and drummer Alan White sitting by the side of a swimming pool, with Liam on vocals, Noel on acoustic guitar and White playing tambourine. This version became available with the 2016 "Chasing The Sun" edition of Be Here Now.
Music video
The video for the song was shot on 20 September 1997. It was a reworking of a famous series of adverts for The Guardian newspaper. Entitled 'The Whole Picture', the adverts showed people appearing to be engaging in criminal and/or anti-social acts—only for it to be revealed that they are actually helping someone else. For example, a scruffily-dressed skinhead rushes at a businessman; it appears he is making an effort to mug him and break into his car, when he is actually getting it open for the businessman who locked the key inside it. Similarly, the music video shows a shop appearing to be being burgled — its window is smashed and people are taking away electrical goods — only for it to be revealed that in fact the victim of a motorcycle crash has gone through the window and is buried under the goods. At the same time, a man who was earlier shown to be apparently running away from approaching police officers was actually rushing to save a girl from being run over by the motorcycle — the officers just happened to come by at that time. The video was filmed in the suburban town of Feltham, in west London.
"Going Nowhere" - apparently Noel's attempt at a Burt Bacharach style song - can be found on The Masterplan, a collection of Oasis B-sides. It is one of only two B-sides from the Be Here Now era to be included on the album. Although it was not released until 1997, the song was written in 1990, before Noel even joined Oasis.
