It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah

It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah is the debut album by the British band Black Grape. Released on 7 August 1995,[11] the album was a critical and commercial success, particularly in the United Kingdom, where it topped the UK Album Charts for two weeks[12] and yielded two top 10 hit singles and a third top 20 hit.

It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah
Studio album by Black Grape
Released	7 August 1995
Studio	Rockfield Studios, Wales Chapel Studios, Lincolnshire Boundary Row, London
Genre	Alternative dance, Britpop
Length	46:16
Label	Radioactive
Producer	Danny Saber, Stephen Lironi, Shaun Ryder, Gary Kurfirst (exec.)
Black Grape chronology
It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah (1995) Stupid Stupid Stupid (1997)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
The Guardian	[2]
The Irish Times	[3]
Mojo	[4]
NME	10/10[5]
Q	[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[8]
Select	5/5[9]
Uncut	7/10[10]

The album was seen as something of a triumphant comeback for both Shaun Ryder and Bez, who had suffered from a decline in popularity and interest in their former band, the Madchester and pre-Britpop indie dance/rock innovators, the Happy Mondays. It's Great... represented what some considered an evolution of the Happy Mondays sound on their 1990 album Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, with a stronger hip hop influence, down mostly to the rapping of Kermit, formerly of the band The Ruthless Rap Assassins. Radioactive Records released three singles from the album, all of which were commercial and critical successes in the UK. "Reverend Black Grape" was released first and reached number 9 in the UK Singles Chart and was followed by "In The Name of the Father", which eclipsed the first single, reaching number 8 in the same chart. A third single, "Kelly's Heroes" also charted within the Top 20 UK Singles Chart, at number 17.[12]

The line "It's frothy man" in "Yeah Yeah Brother" is partly a reference to advertising the 1970s soft drink Cresta.[13] Throughout the album there are lyrical references to The Beatles. The line "We lead double lives. We deal in sex and beautiful women" is sampled from the Burke's Law episode "Who Killed Alex Debbs?" scripted by Harlan Ellison and spoken by John Ireland.

The album was certified platinum by the BPI on 1 April 1996 and got nominated for the Mercury Prize, which lost to Pulp's Different Class.

Background

According to Ryder, the album title refers sarcastically to being free of mood-altering substances.[14] The album art features a famous photograph of infamous international terrorist Carlos the Jackal coloured in pop art style, and was inspiration for Issue 2 of the Image Comics series, Phonogram. The opening lines of "In the Name of the Father" are quoted in the novel The Demented Lands by Alan Warner.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Shaun Ryder and Danny Saber, except where noted[15].

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Reverend Black Grape" (Shaun Ryder, Ian Bendelow, Paul "Manmade" Leveridge, Martin Mittler, Martin Neil Gordon Wright, Spencer Birtwistle)	5:12
2.	"In the Name of the Father"	4:21
3.	"Tramazi Parti" (Ryder, Leveridge, Lironi)	4:45
4.	"Kelly's Heroes" (Ryder, Leveridge)	4:22
5.	"Yeah Yeah Brother" (Ryder)	4:10
6.	"A Big Day in the North"	4:10
7.	"Shake Well Before Opening"	5:40
8.	"Submarine" (Ryder, Leveridge, Martin Mittler, Martin Neil Gordon Wright)	3:50
9.	"Shake Your Money" (Ryder, Lironi)	4:13
10.	"Little Bob"	5:33

Charts

Album – BPI (UK)

Year	Chart	Position
1995	UK Album Chart	1

Singles – BPI (UK)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1995	"Reverend Black Grape"	UK Singles Chart	9
1995	"In The Name of the Father"	UK Singles Chart	8
1995	"Kelly's Heroes"	UK Singles Chart	17

Personnel

Adapted from the liner notes of It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah.[16]

• Shaun Ryder – vocals
• Kermit – vocals
• Psycho – vocals
• Helen Vigneau – backing vocals
• Paul "Wags" Wagstaff – guitar
• Anthony Guarderas – bass
• Ged Lynch – drums, percussion
• Danny Saber – guitars, bass, keyboards, hammond organ, programming, mixing, engineering, production
• Stephen Lironi – keyboards, hammond organ, slide guitar, programming, production
• Martin Slattery – saxophone
• Michael Scherchen – programming, engineering
• Bez – vibes/dance
• Phil Ault – additional engineering
• Ewan Davis – additional engineering
• Tom Lord-Alge – mixing
• Ted Jensen – mastering

Appearances in media

• The song "A Big Day In the North" was used as the opening song in the sci-fi film Virtuosity (1995).
• The song "Yeah Yeah Brother" featured in the film The Devil Wears Prada (2006).

References

1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah – Black Grape". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
2. Sullivan, Caroline (11 August 1995). "CD of the week: Black Grape". The Guardian.
3. Clayton-Lea, Tony (3 November 2016). "Reissue of the Week: Black Grape – It's Great when you're Straight . . . Yeah". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
4. Harris, John (December 2016). "The wild bunch". Mojo. No. 277. p. 103.
5. Kessler, Ted (5 August 1995). "Black Grape – It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah". NME. Archived from the original on 17 August 2000. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
6. "Black Grape: It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah". Q. No. 108. September 1995. p. 113.
7. Cohen, Jason (16 November 1995). "Black Grape: It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 23 October 2003. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
8. Pearlman, Nina (2004). "Happy Mondays". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 362–63. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
9. Higginbotham, Adam (September 1995). "Triumph of the ill". Select. No. 63. pp. 92–93.
10. Staunton, Terry (December 2016). "Black Grape: It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah". Uncut. No. 235. p. 47.
11. "BPI > Certified Awards > Search results for: Black Grape (from bpi.co.uk)". Imgur.com (originally by British Phonographic Industry). Retrieved 25 May 2016.
12. "Official Charts - Black Grape". Retrieved 25 January 2016.
13. Sample Cresta ad on YouTube
14. Thompson, Ben (1 October 1995). "The Interview: Shaun Ryder, Pop Star Talks to Ben Thompson". The Independent.
15. https://listen.tidal.com/album/66563167
16. It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah (booklet). Black Grape. Radioactive Records. 1995.CS1 maint: others (link)