Noel Gallagher once revealed his top eight songs of all time – and his number one choice is a far cry from the Oasis sound.
The iconic rocker is set to hit the stage with his brother Liam for the first time since 2009 this summer. Despite being synonymous with the Britpop anthems of Oasis, Noel’s all-time favourite tune hails from a band that’s a world away from their style.
During an appearance on BBC’s Desert Island Discs, he shared the eight tracks he’d take if marooned on an island.
He kicked off with Pretty Vacant by the Sex Pistols, praising it as a “great pop album that changed everything and it was the rebirth of youth culture that was pretty much dead”.
At number eight, he chose Ticket to Ride by The Beatles, hailing them as “the greatest band of all time” and saying: “I can’t really go through this without mentioning The Beatles.”
However, the song he’d rescue if all his discs were at risk of being swept out to sea is the distinctively different Be My Baby by The Ronettes.
Noel attributed the choice to Sara MacDonald, who he met in Ibiza in 2000 and married in 2011. Before their announced divorce in 2023, Noel discussed with the BBC why he would save that particular track over any other.
He remarked: “I am going to save Be My Baby by The Ronettes because it would make me smile and clench my fists at the same time and think… I still haven’t forgiven her for that but I do love her.”
Noel was recalling an earlier part of the conversation when he mentioned that his former wife, Sara, had chosen Be My Baby as their first dance song.
Despite his comfort on stage, having performed across two nights at Knebworth to a quarter of a million people, Noel found the thought of dancing before his nearest and dearest utterly daunting.
Reflecting on the experience, he shared: “I was dreading that moment coming up, like I have to dance like an adult, and I said just do me one favour, when we get on there, don’t show off because I am clearly a northerner, and a man.”
However, the situation took a humorous turn when Sara transformed into “Olivia Newton-John” as soon as Be My Baby started playing. It was then that Noel’s daughter, Anais, noticing her dad’s discomfort, ingeniously got the wedding guests up and dancing, saving him from the spotlight.
Noel, more adept at penning hits than moving to them, offered a glimpse into his songwriting process while discussing his intuitive sense for a chart-topper.
He provided insight, saying: “There is no golden rule but there are kind of little sign posts that you recognise,” and followed up with: “If a song comes quickly, it usually means it is good because it has just fallen out of the sky.
“Don’t Look Back in Anger took, you know, 15 minutes. If I had known that night that that song would live for so long, and become such a thing, I would never have finished it because it would never have been perfect enough to think, ‘Oh in 25 years people are going to be playing this at their weddings.’ It was just another song.”
Noel’s eight-song tracklist
Sex Pistols – Pretty Vacant
David Bowie – Let’s Dance
Pink Floyd – Nobody Home
The Smiths – Hand in Glove
A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray
U2 – With Or Without You
The Ronettes – Be My Baby
The Beatles – Ticket to Ride
He called Hand in Glove by The Smiths “one of the greatest songs ever rewritten” and heaping praise on U2’s The Joshua Tree album, he added: “You listen to it now and it is easily one of the greatest batches of songs any band has ever written.
“I love U2. I don’t know, if you don’t get it, you don’t get it, and shame on you for not.”