Country House

The lead single from The Great Escape features brass from The Kick Horns and is about a man retiring to a country house. Albarn said it was inspired by Dave Balfe, the former boss of Food Records. Its B-side was One Born Every Minute.

It went to number one in the UK, beating Oasis's Roll with It by 274,000 sales to 216,000, and had sold over 540,000 copies by May 2014, making it their best-selling single. Damien Hirst directed the video with Keith Allen and Matt Lucas, shot at Pyrton Manor, and it was nominated for British Video at the 1996 Brits. Live recordings from Mile End Stadium on 17 June 1995 appear on the CD single.

The four members share the music credit and Albarn wrote the lyrics. He told NME he had believed the papers that said Oasis would win. In a 2026 Guardian interview, Balfe said the song's description of a professional cynic was a very accurate portrayal of him at the time. He had sold his and his wife's 75 percent stake in Food two weeks before Parklife came out, and he said the house was a manor house with three acres of land. It was the first of two Blur singles to reach number one in the UK, the second being Beetlebum.