01: Rock 'N' Roll Star
02: Shakermaker
03: Live Forever
04: Up In The Sky
05: Columbia
06: Sad Song
07: Supersonic
08: Bring It On Down
09: Cigarettes & Alcohol
10: Digsy's Dinner
11: Slide Away
12: Married With Children
Release Date: August 29th 1994
Highest UK Chart Position: Number 1
Oasis
Liam Gallagher – vocals, tambourine
Noel Gallagher – lead guitar, backing vocals
Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs – rhythm guitar, piano on "Live Forever" and "Digsy's Dinner",
Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan – bass guitar,
Tony McCarroll – drums
Additional personnel
Anthony Griffiths – backing vocals on "Supersonic"
Mark Coyle – production, mixing on "Supersonic" and "Married with Children", engineering
Owen Morris – additional production, mixing
Barry Grint – mastering at Abbey Road Studios, London
David Batchelor – production on "Slide Away"
Anjali Dutt – engineering
Dave Scott – engineering, mixing
Roy Spong – engineering
Design
Michael Spencer Jones – photography
Brian Cannon for Microdot – sleeve concept, design, art direction
Album History
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.
Release and reception
The release of Definitely Maybe was preceded by a third single, "Live Forever", which was released on August 8th 1994. Live Forever was the group's first top ten single. The continuing success of Oasis partially allowed Creation to ride out a period of financial straits. The label was still £2 million in debt, so Tim Abbot was given only £60,000 to promote the upcoming album. Abbot tried to determine how best to use his small budget. "I'd go back to the Midlands every couple of weeks," Abbot said, "and people I knew would say, 'Oasis are great.
This is what we listen to.' And I'd be thinking, "Well, you lot don't buy singles. You don't read the NME. You don't read Q. How do we get to people like you?'." Abbot decided to place ads in publications that had never been approached by Creation before, such as football magazines, match programmes and UK dance music periodicals. Abbot's suspicions that Oasis would appeal to these non-traditional audiences were confirmed when the dance music magazine Mixmag, which usually ignored guitar-based music, gave Definitely Maybe a five-star review.
Definitely Maybe was finally released on August 29th 1994. The album sold 100,000 copies in its first four days. On September 4th the album debuted at number one on the British charts. It outsold the second-highest album The Three Tenors In Concert 1994, which had been favoured to be the chart-topper that week, by a factor of 50%. The first-week sales earned Definitely Maybe the record of the fastest-selling debut album in British history. Cigarettes & Alcohol was released as the fourth single from the album in October. Noel Gallagher said Slide Away was considered as a fifth single, but he ultimately refused, arguing, "You can't have five [singles] off a debut album.". However, Slide Away was later used as a b-side to the non-album single Whatever, along with Half The World Away and (It's Good) To Be Free.
Legacy
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. In 2005 Channel 4's '100 Greatest Albums' countdown placed the album at number six.
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. 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.
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.
In a 2008 poll by Q and HMV in 2008, Definitely Maybe was ranked first on a list of the greatest British album of all time.
Noel Gallagher – lead guitar, backing vocals
Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs – rhythm guitar, piano on "Live Forever" and "Digsy's Dinner",
Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan – bass guitar,
Tony McCarroll – drums
Additional personnel
Anthony Griffiths – backing vocals on "Supersonic"
Mark Coyle – production, mixing on "Supersonic" and "Married with Children", engineering
Owen Morris – additional production, mixing
Barry Grint – mastering at Abbey Road Studios, London
David Batchelor – production on "Slide Away"
Anjali Dutt – engineering
Dave Scott – engineering, mixing
Roy Spong – engineering
Design
Michael Spencer Jones – photography
Brian Cannon for Microdot – sleeve concept, design, art direction
Album History
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.
Release and reception
The release of Definitely Maybe was preceded by a third single, "Live Forever", which was released on August 8th 1994. Live Forever was the group's first top ten single. The continuing success of Oasis partially allowed Creation to ride out a period of financial straits. The label was still £2 million in debt, so Tim Abbot was given only £60,000 to promote the upcoming album. Abbot tried to determine how best to use his small budget. "I'd go back to the Midlands every couple of weeks," Abbot said, "and people I knew would say, 'Oasis are great.
This is what we listen to.' And I'd be thinking, "Well, you lot don't buy singles. You don't read the NME. You don't read Q. How do we get to people like you?'." Abbot decided to place ads in publications that had never been approached by Creation before, such as football magazines, match programmes and UK dance music periodicals. Abbot's suspicions that Oasis would appeal to these non-traditional audiences were confirmed when the dance music magazine Mixmag, which usually ignored guitar-based music, gave Definitely Maybe a five-star review.
Definitely Maybe was finally released on August 29th 1994. The album sold 100,000 copies in its first four days. On September 4th the album debuted at number one on the British charts. It outsold the second-highest album The Three Tenors In Concert 1994, which had been favoured to be the chart-topper that week, by a factor of 50%. The first-week sales earned Definitely Maybe the record of the fastest-selling debut album in British history. Cigarettes & Alcohol was released as the fourth single from the album in October. Noel Gallagher said Slide Away was considered as a fifth single, but he ultimately refused, arguing, "You can't have five [singles] off a debut album.". However, Slide Away was later used as a b-side to the non-album single Whatever, along with Half The World Away and (It's Good) To Be Free.
Legacy
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. In 2005 Channel 4's '100 Greatest Albums' countdown placed the album at number six.
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. 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.
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.
In a 2008 poll by Q and HMV in 2008, Definitely Maybe was ranked first on a list of the greatest British album of all time.
