"It's a Beautiful Thing" is a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetiti ...

Ocean Colour Scene Ocean Colour Scene (often abbreviated to OCS) are an English rock band formed in Solihull in 1989. They have had five top 10 albums including a number one in 1997. They have also achieved seventeen top 40 singles and six top 10 singles to date ...

with

P. P. Arnold Patricia Ann Cole (born October 3, 1946), known professionally as P. P. Arnold, is an American soul singer. Arnold began her career as an Ikette with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in 1965. The following year she relocated to London to pursue a solo ...

. The song was released in 1998 and reached number 12 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. It is taken from their 1997 chart-topping album '' Marchin' Already'' and was the fourth and final single to be released from the album, following " Hundred Mile High City", " Travellers Tune" and " Better Day". By not reaching the Top 10, the song broke the chain formed by the previous six singles which had all reached the Top 10. The band have never reached the Top 10 since. The lyrics are understood to be about

Simon Fowler Simon Geoffrey Fowler (born 25 May 1965 in Meriden, Warwickshire) is an English singer and acoustic guitarist, best known as the frontman of Ocean Colour Scene. The Fanatics Simon Fowler commenced his music career as the lead singer and songwr ...

's (aka Sonny's) personal difficulties in coming out as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

. The title is a reference to the 1993 play and 1996 film '' Beautiful Thing''.

Love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

is the "beautiful thing", but Fowler also laments that it can be a "terrible thing".

already guested on OCS' previous single " Travellers Tune".

Track listing

# "It's a Beautiful Thing" # "Mariners Way" # "Going Nowhere for a While" # "Expensive Chair" {{Authority control Ocean Colour Scene songs 1998 singles Gay-related songs