The year belonged to Oasis. Their supposed arch rivals, Blur, might have won the set-piece Britpop skirmish, beating Roll with It to No 1 with Country House, but their fourth album, The Great Escape, was at the time considered a lacklustre follow-up to Parklife. Oasis, on the other hand, were on fire. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? bristled with hooks and hit singles. Some Might Say, Roll with It and Don’t Look Back in Anger all made the Top 10, but it was Wonderwall, the third single from the album, that came to epitomise the band’s creative peak, their obsession with the Beatles (the song title comes from a George Harrison album, while Liam’s vocal is pure Lennon) and the extraordinary critical and commercial glory they enjoyed during the 12-month period from August 1995 to their two sold-out shows at Knebworth the following summer.

No song intro can conjure up 1995 as instantly and devastatingly as the opening chords of Wonderwall. With the simplest of acoustic-guitar figures, Noel Gallagher strummed his way into our memory banks, as the drum beat shuffled and Liam slurred and sneered through the opening verse: “Today is gonna be the day that they’re gonna throw it back to you.” Lyrically, it is one of Noel’s best, with none of his clunky versifying. Indeed, the line “I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now” is, in its directness and economy, a key part of the song’s success. Wonderwall was assumed to have been inspired by Noel’s bride-to-be, Meg Mathews. In 2002, shortly after the couple’s divorce, the guitarist fessed up, saying: “How do you tell your Mrs it’s not about her once she’s read it is? It’s a song about an imaginary friend who’s gonna come and save you from yourself.”

Notable cover versions have included the Mike Flowers Pops interpretation, which reached the same position (No 2) as the original. Oasis were kept off the top spot in Britain by Robson and Jerome. In America, Wonderwall remains their biggest hit. With exquisite timing, shortly before fans start weighing the band’s new album, Dig Your Own Soul (released on October 6), against hits like Wonderwall, Liam has said that he isn’t terribly partial to the track: “I can’t f***ing stand that f***ing song. Every time I have to sing it, I want to gag. Problem is, it was a big, big tune for us. You go to America and they’re like, ‘Are you Mr Wonderwall?’ You want to chin someone.” Bless.

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