Oasis Definitely Maybe released

Definitely Maybe Oasis

Released: August 30, 1994 Peak: 58 US, 12 UK, -- CN, 23 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 2.0 UK, 7.5 world (includes US and UK), 10.0 EAS Genre: Britpop

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Rock ‘N’ Roll Star [5:23] (6/3/95, 36 MR, 38 DF) Shakermaker [5:08] (6/13/94, 11 UK) Live Forever [4:36] (8/8/94, 39 BA, 38 GR, 1 AR, 2 MR, 2, 8 UK, 70 CN, 11 DF) Up in the Sky [4:28] Columbia [6:17] Supersonic [4:43] (4/11/94, 38 AR, 11 MR, 31 UK, 38 DF) Bring It on Down [4:17] Cigarettes and Alcohol [4:49] (10/10/94, 7 UK, 33 DF) Digsy’s Diner [2:32] Slide Away [6:32] (5/13/96, 31 UK) Married with Children [3:11] All songs written by Noel Gallagher. Total Running Time: 51:56 The Players: Liam Gallagher (vocals, tambourine) Noel Gallagher, guitar, backing vocals, bass) Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs (rhythm guitar, piano) Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan (bass) Tony McCarroll (drums)

Rating: 4.300 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Quotable: -- Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Gallagher Brothers Oasis started in 1991. “The band is blessed with the excellent songwriting of Noel Gallagher” AM who “writes perfect pop songs” AM and delivers “dialed-to-11 guitar on working-class anthems…built off the Beatles and T. Rex to reach for their own glorious future.” 500 It offered “a platform for his brother Liam’s brash, snarling vocals” AM “a voice part Johnny Rotten and part John Lennon.” TB “Not only does the band have melodies, but they have the capability to work a groove with more dexterity than most post-punk groups.” AM Their contentious relationship made the Gallagher boys mainstays in the British tabloids for years. Their fighting was often compared to the Davies brothers from the Kinks; the music was hailed as practically the second coming of the Beatles. Indeed, the album “manages to encapsulate much of the best of British rock & roll — from the Beatles to the Stone Roses.” AM The band became “nineties personifications of the true rock ‘n’ roll spirit.” RD An Impressive Debut “Definitely Maybe is a triumphant debut from Oasis, capturing the brash confidence of youth…and blending Britpop swagger with raw emotion and setting the stage for their rock ‘n’ roll dominance.” OH At the time of its release, Oasis’ first outing was the UK’s “fastest selling debut album of all time,” WK selling “100,000 copies in its first four days.” WK Britpop Vs. Grunge In the United States, the grunge movement brought guitar-based rock back to the forefront. However, “Oasis didn’t get the memo about how Nineties rockers had to be all angst-y and fame-hating.” 500 They were at the forefront of the Britpop movement in the UK. The genre “started as an anti-grunge movement around 1992 and developed into a collective desire to relive the 1960s and make Britain swing again.” TB “In the face of the heaviness of grunge’s brief rise and fall [Oasis] brought a breath of fresh air.” PM The band was comprised of “five of the most ordinary, working-class lads” RD who delivered a sound that was “louder and more guitar-oriented than any British band since the Sex Pistols.” AM They “reignite[d] the scene and redefine[d] the musical landscape.” RD “Definitely Maybe is anthemic, beautiful, raucous and gritty—an instant classic that arrived as a change on the airwaves of our hearts right when we needed to start feeling something new.” PM It was “a swaggering, towering record that delivered a much needed refreshing landscape for music to land on.” PM The Songs Part of “what makes Definitely Maybe so intoxicating is that it already resembles a greatest-hits album.” AM “Each song sounds like an instant classic.” AM “There was no pretension in their often thinly veiled reworkings of Beatles tunes.” RD “The swirling rush” AM of “the blaring Rock ‘N’ Roll Star” 500 leads off the album. It is “a hedonistic anthem par excellence.” RD Listeners first introduction to Oasis, however, was in April 1994, four months before the release of Definitely Maybe. That’s when the Gallagher brothers and company released their first single, “the raucous Supersonic.” OH While it was only a minor hit in the UK, reaching the top 40, it helped set up anticipation for the album. The second single, “the sinewy Shakermaker,” AM did better, just barely missing the top 10 in the UK. The song is “a New Seekers rip-off, all the more vivid for such brazen borrowing.” RD The “soaring Live Forever” OH was the third single from the album. Like its predecessors, it was released before Definitely Maybe. It gave Oasis their first top-10 UK hit and was the breakthrough for the band in the U.S., hitting #1 on the album rock chart and #2 on the modern rock chart. “The exhilarating Cigarettes & Alcohol” RD was released as the album’s fourth single. It became the most successful song from the album in the UK, getting to #7. It “references T-Rex’s ‘Get It On’” RD and Chuck Berry. TB “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.’” WK Notes: A version of the album with bonus tracks included “Sad Song,” another version of “Live Forever,” and a cover of The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus.”

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 732. OH One Hit Thunder (2/10/2026). “The Thundred: The Top 100 Albums of All Time” PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” 500 Rolling Stone (2020). 500 Greatest Albums of All Time TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 273. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 5/31/2011; last updated 9/6/2026.

Boyz II Men spend 1st of 14 weeks at #1 with “I’ll Make Love to You”

I’ll Make Love to You Boyz II Men

Writer(s): Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds (see lyrics here) Released: July 26, 1994 First Charted: August 5, 1994 Peak: 114 US, 113 CB, 19 GR, 14 RR, 13 AC, 19 RB, 5 UK, 13 CN, 12 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.63 US, 0.45 UK, 2.14 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 218.17 video, 252.10 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Boyz II Men emerged in 1991 with their debut album Cooleyhighharmony, featuring top-five hits “Motownphilly” and “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.” They followed up the album with “End of the Road,” a cut from the Boomerang soundtrack which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 13 weeks, the most in the history of the chart at that time. They didn’t hold the record for long. Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” logged 14 weeks at the pinnacle in 1992-93. However, Boyz II Men shot back with “I’ll Make Love to You,” the lead single from their 1994 album II. It matched Houston’s 14 weeks at #1. That record wouldn’t last long either. In 1995-96, Mariah Carey spent 16 weeks at #1 with “One Sweet Day” – a song featuring none other than Boyz II Men. That gave the R&B group the incredible distinction of singing on three of the four biggest #1 songs in the first 40 years of the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Boyz II Men tapped Babyface, who’d co-written “End of the Road,” as the producer for their second album because of his experience singing hits on his own, writing for others such as Pebbles, Klymaxx, and the Whispers, and producing for Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Gill, Whitney Houston, and Madonna. SF Babyface saw “I’ll Make Love to You” as kind of a sequel to “End of the Road.” He admitted it was hard to try to outdo that song, but that was essentially his goal. SF He said his hope was that “it not be exactly the same, but familiar enough where you could touch some of the same ingredients.” FB However, the group initially thought it sounded too much like “End of the Road” and considered leaving it off the album. According to Babyface, Motown Records’ then-president Jheryl Busby made the decision to release the song despite the protests of the group. SF It won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Single and Favorite Soul/R&B single. Resources: FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 830. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 3/28/2020; last updated 1/18/2024.