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Noel Gallagher: songwriter, stealer, genius

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It's a daft world where Oasis get accused of stealing from Cliff Richard – seemingly on the basis of a vaguely-similar keyboard figure.

Think what you like about Gallagher, but MusicRadar does not honestly believe Noel looks to the mawkish monk of puritan pop for inspiration. But maybe such accusations occur because Noel has previous 'form'?

After all, even a quick trawl through the Oasis back catalogue reveals some telling clues on Noel's smartest 'borrowing'.

MusicRadar sat down with some classic Oasis tracks and some other songs – just to see if they are 'friends'.

Let's see what we found.

"Stop me if you've heard this one before..."

Shakermaker by Oasis (1994)
= I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing by The New Seekers (1971)
Australia's The New Seekers were hugely popular in the UK when Noel was a young boy. I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing was used on TV ads for Coca-Cola and sold almost one million copies in the UK alone. Shakermaker's initial vocal melody is essentially the same. So much so that The New Seekers sued – with Oasis reportedly having to pay $500,000 as settlement.

Cigarettes And Alcohol by Oasis (1994)
= Get It On by T-Rex (1971)
Long talked about, the opening guitar riff to Cigarettes And Alcohol is a direct decendent of Get It On. But as it's such a generic blues-rock riff, maybe we shouldn't be too harsh?

Whatever by Oasis (1994)
= How Sweet To Be An Idiot by Neil Innes (1973)
Comic British songwriter Neil Innes (a Monty Python alumni) was behind Beatles parody 'rockumentary' The Rutles. The opening vocal melodies of Whatever and …Idiot are almost identical. Even an idiot can hear that.

Half The World Away by Oasis (1994)
= This Guy's In Love With You by Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass (1968)
A picture of songwriter Burt Bacharach appears on the cover of Oasis's debut Definitely Maybe, and Noel is a vocal fan of BB's melodies. Which probably explains why the opening C / FMaj7 chords and meter of Half The World Away are a close relation of Herb Alpert's version of the Bacharach classic.

Lyla by Oasis (2005)
= Confrontation Camp by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives (1996)
Noel Gallagher says Lyla sounded "a bit like... The Soundtrack of Our Lives doing The Who on Skol in a psychedelic city in the sky, or something." Maybe. Or is it just a straight rip of Confrontation Camp? The two bands toured together, after all. Hmm…

"You'd have to ask the record company about that." Noel Gallagher on why Step Out 'disappeared' from the final version of (What's The Story) Morning Glory?

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