Noel Gallagher | Oasis

The song is the first Oasis single to feature Noel Gallagher singing lead vocals. Prior to that, he only sang lead on the group’s B-sides; his brother Liam Gallagher is the band’s main vocalist. 

In 1995, Noel Gallagher told Rolling Stone, "It's not about being upset about the things you might have said or done yesterday, which is quite appropriate at the moment. It's about looking forward rather than looking back. I hate people who look back on the past or talk about what might have been.”  

The song’s title is a combination of D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 Bob Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back and the David Bowie song, "Look Back in Anger." The song also references English playwright and actor John Osborne's 1956 play Look Back in Anger.   

In a 2019 interview with Esquire, Noel Gallagher said, "I remember writing it in Paris on a rainy night. We had just played a strip club: our set finished; the strippers came on. We were nothing, an insignificant little band. And I remember going back to my hotel room and writing it, and thinking, 'That'll be pretty good when we record it.' If I'd have known that night what I know now about people playing it at f***ing funerals and weddings, I'd never have finished the song. Too much pressure."