“The poppiest thing since ‘Roll With It'”: the single that made Oasis leave Sony
Most artists would be happy to hit the top of the singles charts for the seventh time, but Noel Gallagher and Oasis haven’t always been like most other artists. Though he now admits that ‘Lyla’, the lead single from their 2005 album Don’t Believe the Truth, has “done the business”, Gallagher initially clashed heads with the powers at Sony over whether to release the song.
Though the album finally came out in 2005, recording sessions had started two years previously and had become a strained, drawn-out process. Oasis had initially gone into the studio armed with a new set of songs and a new producer in Richard Fearless of Death in Vegas, but these were later almost all abandoned, as Noel Gallagher admitted the material wasn’t strong enough. From the ten songs recorded at the original sessions, only four would make the final album—’Turn Up the Sun’, ‘Mucky Fingers’, ‘A Bell Will Ring’ and ‘The Meaning of Soul’—although not until they were each either re-recorded or remastered and overdubbed.
After a short break to clear their heads and shake off the failed sessions, the group returned to the studio with yet more new songs and now, a new drummer, in the shape of Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey, who had most recently been working with The Who.
With Starkey’s fresh injection of energy and a more potent batch of songs written by both Noel and, increasingly, Liam, the group had almost finished the album. But their troubles with the record weren’t over yet. Their label, Sony, baulked when they heard the initial tracks that were presented as options for lead single, as they didn’t hear a hit among the selection.
Noel was pushing for the stodgy, repetitive rocker ‘Mucky Fingers’ to be the first number released from the record, but Sony had other ideas and sent the group back to the studio to record a song they had demoed a year before, which had the potential to sound more like the band had done in their youth and prime.
When ‘Lyla’ became the lead single from Don’t Believe the Truth, Noel dismissed it as “annoyingly catchy” and the “poppiest thing since ‘Roll with It’” in various interviews, while his brother Liam had some choice words to say about the promotional video, calling it “fucking shocking” and adding that “we look like fucking Culture Club on shit acid”. It was only after performing the song in concert that the band came around to their opinion of the track.
But their fans liked the song enough to send it to the top of the charts, vindicating Sony’s decision to insist that Oasis re-record it for the album. While the Gallaghers were happy with the success of the single and the sales of the album, they weren’t pleased with the intervention from the label and the tensions that had been increasing over the long and difficult gestation period when working on the record. With work finally done on the album, the band had fulfilled their contractual obligations with Sony and decided against renewing the deal, signing instead with rivals Universal in 2007.
‘Mucky Fingers’ was never released as a single.
