Cover Story: Wonderwall

A love song, a football anthem, and a weapon of war for men with acoustic guitars: Noel Gallagher said he thought Wonderwall was an annoying song when he wrote it. 

Cover Story dips more than a toe into the world of Britpop with composer and ex-Go-Between Amanda Brown, and conductor, composer and singer Dan Walker. 

Every great song gets covered. Sometimes beautifully, sometimes badly, and sometimes by people who clearly should have known better.

Cover Story, returning for its third series, hunts down the best, the worst, and the downright strange versions of classic songs, and asks the question: why does this version give us goosebumps while that one makes our skin crawl?

Wonderwall

Words and music by Noel GallagherFirst performed by OasisOn the album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, 1995

Versions heard in the show:

• The Mike Flowers Pops - single (1995)
• Cat Power - John Peel Session live at the BBC (2000)
• Bring Me the Horizon, single (2025)
• Paul Anka - Rock Swings (2005)
• Brad Mehldau - Brad Mehldau Trio Live (2008)
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays The Music of Oasis (1997)
• Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell (2004)
• The Killers - Live At Lollapalooza Chile (2018)
• Oasis - Live in Dublin August 2025

Next time on Cover Story: the nation’s favourite Australian song, Never Tear Us Apart by INXS.

Technical production by Antonia Gauci

The show this week was made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country.