"The Original Wonderwall..."

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Two months after Oasis released "Wonderwall" in 1995, The Mike Flowers Pops released their own, easy-listening spoof version. Their cover reached #2 on the charts in the UK, six weeks after the original, however the spoof was jokingly promoted as "the original version" of "Wonderwall".

Noel Gallagher talked about the song, and meeting the man behind Mike Flowers Pops, Michael Roberts, in an interview with the NME in 1998.
"I was in one of those little record shops behind Virgin on Oxford Street, and there was this bloke behind me, 6ft 2ins, bald head, and I could feel him looking at me. He comes up with his wife and goes, 'Sorry to bother you, you don't know me, but I covered one of your songs once.' I thought he was a busker, or summat, and I was going, 'Oh, right mate.' And it's Mike Flowers! He's going, 'I'd just like to say thanks for letting us put it out.' I was going, 'Phhfftt! Don't you worry about it mate, just fucking thanks for the cheque!' That's the only time I've ever met him. And he's bald, I'll have you know! Bald as a coot!"
"The funniest story about that "Wonderwall" thing was, we were in America, and the fella who played it [ie. Mike Flowers' version] for the first time, I think it was Dave Pearce on Radio 1, he was doing a spoof saying that was the original of "Wonderwall". So I get a phone call off the wife (Meg Matthews). And it's another one at 7am, and I'm like, 'What do you want at this time?' She's going, 'You know that song you wrote for me?' 'Yeah...' 'Well it's not even one of your songs, is it?' I was going, 'What are you fucking going on about?' She says, 'Listen to this' - and she's taped it off the radio! She's going, 'That's the original.' I said, 'Play that again!' Then she sent the tape over and eventually we found out what it was. But for a minute I was going, 'Did I? Maybe I did!' She was well pissed off for about an hour and a half. 'No, honestly, I did write about you...!"
According to Wikipedia: Chris Evans heard the song on his fellow Radio 1 DJ Kevin Greening's show, and made it 'single of the week' on his Radio 1 breakfast show, telling listeners that this version was the original Wonderwall. As a listener of Chris Evans' show at the time, this version of events rings true in my memory. 

Following the success of "Wonderwall", The Mike Flowers Pops quickly advanced from performing shows in nightclubs and small concert halls to touring festivals and larger venues across Britain and Europe.

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