Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Definitely Maybe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Definitely Maybe | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Studio album by Oasis | |||||
| Released | 30 August 1994 | ||||
| Recorded | 1993–1994 at Sawmills Studios, Cornwall The Pink Museum, Liverpool Out of the Blue, Manchester Monnow Valley, Monmouth Loco Studios, Caerleon Eden Studios, Chiswick |
||||
| Genre | Rock, Britpop | ||||
| Length | 51:57 | ||||
| Label | Creation | ||||
| Producer | Oasis, Mark Coyle, Owen Morris, Dave Batchelor | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
|
|||||
| Oasis chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Singles from Definitely Maybe | |||||
|
|||||
Definitely Maybe is the debut album by the English band Oasis, released in 1994. It was an immediate commercial and critical success in the UK, having followed on the heels of singles "Supersonic", "Shakermaker" and particularly the popular "Live Forever".
Definitely Maybe went straight to number one in the UK Album charts on initial release. It was the fastest selling debut album of all time in the UK when released. Definitely Maybe marked the beginning of Oasis' success in America, selling over 1 million copies there, although only reaching #58 on the Billboard 200. The album went on to sell over 7.5 million copies worldwide.
In 1997 Definitely Maybe was named the 14th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM.[1] In 2005 Channel 4's '100 Greatest Albums' countdown placed the album at number 6.[2] In 2006 NME placed the album third in a list of the greatest British albums ever, behind The Stone Roses and The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead.[3] In a recent British poll, run by NME and the book of British Hit Singles and Albums, Definitely Maybe was voted the best album of all time with The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band finishing second and Revolver third.[4] Q magazine readers placed it at five on their greatest albums of all time list in 2006 and in that same year NME hailed it as the greatest album of all time. It is frequently referred to as the greatest debut album of all time.
Contents |
In 1994, Oasis were seen as a distant echo of the moribund 'Madchester' scene which had exploded in the early 1990s. Unlike other Madchester bands who indulged in experiments with funk, dance or hip-hop, Oasis presented themselves as a relatively straightforward rock and roll band. Along with bands like Blur and The Verve they seemed to encapsulate a new wave, one which did not yet have a name. By the end of the year the media coined the term Britpop, of which Definitely Maybe retrospectively became one of the pivotal albums.
Many of the songs had originally appeared on Oasis' "Live Demonstration" demo recorded in Liverpool the year before with Chris and Tony Griffiths of The Real People. The main recording sessions took longer than expected, with the bulk of the album having to be recorded three different times with Mark Coyle producing, before Owen Morris came up with a mix that everyone was satisfied with. The album cost nearly £85,000 to produce, a huge amount of money for a debut album at the time.
The album title, according to Noel Gallagher, comes from a poster he saw in a pub, although he cannot remember what the poster was advertising.
All tracks written by Noel Gallagher.
- "Rock 'n' Roll Star" – 5:22
- "Shakermaker" – 5:08
- "Live Forever" – 4:36
- "Up in the Sky" – 4:28
- "Columbia" – 6:17
- "Sad Song" (extra track on the UK LP version, and the original Japanese version of the album) – 4:27
- "Supersonic" – 4:43
- "Bring It on Down" – 4:17
- "Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:49
- "Digsy's Dinner" – 2:32
- This was misspelt as "Digsy's Diner" upon its North American release.
- "Slide Away" – 6:32
- "Married with Children" – 3:11
- "Cloudburst" (Japanese version bonus track)
- "Whatever"
- "(It's Good) to Be Free"
- "Half the World Away"
Definitely Maybe was released on DVD in September 2004 to mark the tenth anniversary of its original release. It went triple platinum in the UK. The DVD featured an hour-long documentary about the recording of the album featuring rare and contemporary interviews with the band and its associates. Also included was the album in its entirety, which included "Sad Song", which was originally only released on the UK vinyl version of the album and also on the Japanese CD edition. Other content included live and TV performances of the albums twelve tracks, and the promo videos to "Supersonic" (UK & US versions), "Shakermaker", "Live Forever" (UK & US versions), "Cigarettes & Alcohol" and "Rock 'n' Roll Star".
A limited-edition release in the UK and Ireland included a bonus DVD containing more live footage and anecdotes.
There was also an accompanying made-for-TV documentary, entitled There We Were, Now Here We Are...: The Making Of Oasis. This was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK at 11:30pm on Friday, September 3, three days before the release of the Definitely Maybe DVD. The programme combined existing and unused interview footage from the DVD documentary and focused on the origins of the band, and the four singles from Definitely Maybe. It also included a very rare clip of "All Around the World" performed live at a rehearsal session in the Boardwalk in 1992, five years before it was eventually recorded and released on Be Here Now.
The DVD received the NME award for Best DVD, beating Nirvana’s With the Lights Out, Pixies’ Pixies, Scissor Sisters’ We Are Scissor Sisters and So Are You and The White Stripes’ Under Blackpool Lights.[5]
Accessed by playing album's audio on disc one and pressing 'Down' on the following tracks:
- "Rock 'n' Roll Star": a story about Liam wanting all sorts of strange instruments on the recording.
- "Live Forever": about the choice of Live Forever as the vital 3rd track on the album. Includes a surprise revelation about who sung the vocals on a certain part of the song...
- "Supersonic": a segment called Musical Theory — an anecdote by Noel.
- "Cigarettes & Alcohol": about Noel's neighbour, who was sick of hearing the song.
- "Slide Away": a segment called Definitely Maybe?? — revealing the inspiration behind the title.
- "Married with Children": a short piece about Guigsy.
Heard by pressing 'Audio' on the US versions of "Supersonic" and "Live Forever" and the regular UK versions of "Shakermaker" and "Cigarettes & Alcohol" promo videos. (Some of the commentaries don't start until about a minute into the song.)
By default, the DVD plays the US versions of "Supersonic" and "Live Forever". To see the UK versions, press 'Angle' once the videos start.
- Wibbling Rivalry: when "Married with Children" ends, the screen will go black for a few seconds. At this time, (and before "Sad Song" starts), press 'down' on your remote, and you'll hear extracts from the infamous Wibbling Rivalry interview.
- "Sad Song": the version of the song on the DVD is slightly different to the original version released in 1994. When Noel sings, "Throwing it all away / don't throw it all away", the vocal is double-tracked. No-one outside of the Oasis camp knows why this was done for the DVD release, but if you want to have the original version, you'll have to get the UK vinyl or the Japanese CD edition of Definitely Maybe, or the Japanese CD edition of the "Don't Go Away" single.
| Single |
|---|
"Supersonic"
|
"Shakermaker"
|
| "Live Forever" |
"Cigarettes & Alcohol"
|
- Liam Gallagher – vocals
- Noel Gallagher – lead guitar, vocals
- Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs – rhythm guitar
- Paul McGuigan – bass guitar
- Tony McCarroll – drums
- Oasis – producer
- Anthony Griffiths – vocals
- David Batchelor – producer
- Mark Coyle – producer, engineer, mixing
- Anjali Dutt – engineer
- Owen Morris – producer, mastering, mixing, production concept
- Roy Spong – engineer
- Dave Scott – engineer
- Brian Cannon – art direction, design, concept, cover design
- Michael Spencer Jones – photography
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | UK Albums Chart | 1 |
| 1994 | Billboard 200 | 58 |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | "Supersonic" | UK Singles Chart | 31 |
| 1994 | "Shakermaker" | UK Singles Chart | 11 |
| 1994 | "Live Forever" | UK Singles Chart | 10 |
| 1994 | "Cigarettes and Alcohol" | UK Singles Chart | 7 |
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 30 August 1994 | Creation Records | LP | CRELP169 |
| CD | CRECD169 | |||
| Cassette | CCRE169 | |||
| Minidisc | CREMD169 | |||
| 14 August 2000 | Big Brother | LP | RKIDLP006 | |
| CD | RKIDCD006 | |||
| Cassette | RKIDMC006 | |||
| Minidisc | RKIDMD006 | |||
| 6 September 2004 | DVD | RKIDDVD06 | ||
| 2DVD | RKIDDVD06X | |||
| United States | 30 August 2005 | Epic Records | CD | EK66431 |
| 17 May 2005 | DualDisc | EN94573 | ||
| Japan | 15 November 2005 | Sony Music Japan | CD | EICP690 |
- ^ [1]
- ^ Channel4.com : The 100 Greatest Albums
- ^ "NME's best British album of all time revealed", NME, 2006-01-26.
- ^ "Oasis' album 'best of all time'", BBC News, 2006-06-01.
- ^ "OASIS GRAB BEST MUSIC DVD AWARD", NME, 2005-02-17.
