Straight in at number one, and the drummer was out a week later
On 24 April 1995 Creation released Some Might Say, and it became the first Oasis single to reach number one in Britain. It went straight in at the top, pushing Take That’s Back for Good down. The NME had already made it single of the week. Noel Gallagher had told anyone who would listen that he had known it would be a number one from the moment he finished writing it. He was not guessing after the fact. He said the same thing before the record came out.
He wrote it in Chiswick after he moved to London, with the Faces in his ear, and later pointed at Grant Lee Buffalo’s Fuzzy as another spark. The master was cut at Loco Studios in South Wales in late February 1995, with Owen Morris co-producing, before the band ever got to Rockfield. Tony McCarroll played the drums. It was the last Oasis single to feature the original five: Liam, Noel, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan, and McCarroll. The B-sides were not leftovers. Talk Tonight, Acquiesce and Headshrinker came off the same Loco sessions. Alan McGee, who ran Creation, wanted Acquiesce as the A-side. He did not think Some Might Say sounded like a number one.
Noel overruled him. The released take is brighter and more polished than the demo, which Noel has since said he prefers, calling the demo dirtier. The single that hit the chart is the Britpop one: a long verse, a chorus that lifts, Liam pushing the top of his range, McCarroll keeping a straight rock beat. It is also the last time that lineup appears on an Oasis A-side. About a week after the release, McCarroll was fired. Alan White played the rest of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?.
Alan McGee wanted the A-side to be Acquiesce because he didn’t think Some Might Say sounded like a number one. He’s a great man but his one fault is that he has absolutely no idea how to pick singles. As soon as I’d written Some Might Say I was absolutely certain it would be a number one and I was right.
(Noel Gallagher, Oasis singles box-set notes)
The band played the song on Top of the Pops twice in quick succession. The first appearance was McCarroll’s last television job with Oasis. The second brought White in, already learning a single he had not recorded. By the start of May the group was at Rockfield with the new drummer, cutting the rest of the album that Some Might Say had been sent out to announce. The single had done the chart job Noel promised. It had also closed the first lineup.
Listeners who bought the CD for the number one also got Acquiesce, the B-side McGee had wanted on the front. That argument did not die. Fans spent the next three years saying the flip was the better song, and in 1998 it opened the B-sides album The Masterplan. Some Might Say still has the historical mark the B-side does not. It is the single that put Oasis at number one, and the last one Tony McCarroll played on.
