This was the first chart topper of 1972. It began life as a TV commercial, shamelessly co-opting a multi-racial group of teenagers to sing the joys of a sugary fizzy drink… and ended up being stolen by Oasis.

It’s written by British songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway with jingle writer Billy Davis and a lucrative co-credit for the advertising exec who jotted “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” on a napkin during an enforced airport stopover.

It seems that Cook, Davis and the ad-man, Bill Backer from McCann Erickson, were stranded at Shannon Airport when they noticed most of the passengers drinking his client’s product.

The ad – the most expensive ever made at the time – featured a version sung by an American folk group called The Hillside Singers. It was then re-recorded by The New Seekers with three more verses, adapted from a jingle previously written by Davis called “True love and apple pie”.

Helped by the huge popularity of the ad, the song went to No.1 and stayed there for what seemed like years. Perhaps longer. I think everyone on earth knows this song – which was ovviously the plan. It sold a truly staggering TWELVE MILLION copies.

And anyone who didn’t know it by the mid-Nineties was able to rediscover the tune when Oasis nicked it wholesale for their early hit Shakermaker, giving fans an early indication of the songwriting originality of Noel Gallagher… with Liam referencing the original around the 3-minute mark