(What's the Story) Morning Glory Review

(What's the Story) Morning Glory? is the highly acclaimed second album by British rock band Oasis, first released in October 1995. The album was a worldwide hit, reaching #1 in the United Kingdom on 8 October where it only stayed for 1 week then again on 7 January where this time it stayed for 6 week, and #4 in the United States, and selling more than 19 million copies worldwide. The album was produced by Owen Morris and remains the second biggest selling album of all time in the UK and worldwide by a British artist. The title is said to have been inspired by a friend of Noel's who used the phrase during a telephone conversation. The phrase Morning Glory is British slang, referring to an erection experienced after waking up, but the album title is most likely a reference to the song "The Telephone Hour" from the musical Bye Bye Birdie

For many people (What's the Story) Morning Glory? represents the epitome of the Britpop movement. The year before its release, Britain's two biggest bands, Blur and Oasis, had released massively successful albums and had begun making inroads in the United States. However, the two bands constantly attacked each other in the media.

Things came to a head when Oasis and Blur decided to release a single from their highly anticipated albums on the same day, August 14, 1995. This event caused a media sensation that extended beyond the music industry to the point where the bands were regularly mentioned on the evening news.

The challenge was dubbed The Battle Of Britpop and was considered a fight between the gritty, working class Oasis and the artsy, middle class Blur. Blur's "Country House" single sold 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 copies of "Roll With It".

However, in the end, Oasis' album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? was far more successful than Blur's The Great Escape. In Britain and Ireland it became habit when asked "What's the story?" (lit. "How are you?"), to answer with "Morning glory". In the UK, it spent over three times as long on the charts (a total of three years) and outsold Blur's album 14x platinum vs. 3x platinum. Oasis' album is hailed as the essence of Britpop for its impact on mainstream society, debt to 1960s music, and anthemic nature.

Despite often being cited as inferior to Oasis' debut album, in 1997 Morning Glory was named the 5th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998 Q magazine readers placed it at number 8. At the end of the 1990's, it was named Q Magazine's "Album of the Decade" in their "90 of the 90's" article. In 2003, the album was ranked number 376 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The album has remained highly popular for almost a decade, returning to the UK album charts in May 2005 at number 50. By mid-June, it reached #44.

On the cover of the album, (designed and directed by Microdot's Brian Cannon) a man is seen brandishing what looks to be a vinyl record in its sleeve, it is in actual fact the master tape. The man in question is Owen Morris, the producer. The photo was taken on Berwick Street in Soho, a London street well known for its independent record shops.

Also, perhaps as a joke, the first track on the album starts off with Wonderwall playing very quietly, but is stopped when the actual song begins. Perhaps, the joke would be that the listener would turn up the stereo loudly, thinking that he would have to do so in order to hear the album, and then have to quickly turn it down to avoid going deaf, an Owen Morris trademark. Morris used a similar tactic on The Verve's 1995 album A Northern Soul.