Alright (Supergrass song)

"Alright"
Single by Supergrass
from the album I Should Coco
A-side "Time"
B-side "Condition"
Released 3 July 1995 (United Kingdom)
30 August 1995 (Japan)
Format CD, 7" vinyl
Recorded Sawmills Studio
1994
Genre Britpop, power pop
Length 3:00
Label Parlophone
Writer(s) Supergrass
Producer(s) Sam Williams
Certification Silver[1]
Supergrass singles chronology
"Lenny"
(1995)		 "Alright"
(1995)		 "Going Out"
(1996)

"Alright" is a song by British alternative rock band Supergrass. It was released with "Time" as a double A-side single from their debut album I Should Coco on 3 July 1995. The song is featured in several films including Clueless, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Astro Boy, LOL, High Lane, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!, Alien Autopsy as well as in Intel Pentium and Kellogg's Frosted Flakes TV advertisements.

Music and lyrics

"Alright" received a great deal of airplay in the UK. The "bona fide teen anthem",[2] with its upbeat lyrics and cheerful piano tune, seemed to epitomise British youth culture at the time, when Britpop was at its height. The band's youthful appearance (lead singer Gaz Coombes had only just turned 19 when it was released) added weight to the lyrics. However, Coombes himself argued around the time of its release that, "it wasn't written as an anthem. It isn't supposed to be a rally cry for our generation. The stuff about 'We are young/We run green...' isn't about being 19 but really 13 or 14 and just discovering girls and drinking. It's meant to be light-hearted and a bit of a laugh, not at all a rebellious call to arms." with Danny Goffey also saying: "It certainly wasn't written in a very summery vibe. It was written in a cottage where the heating had packed up and we were trying to build fires to keep warm."[3]

The second A-side "Time" is a slower, more blues-driven track, with the song even incorporating a harmonica solo. The B-side, "Condition", is a cover of "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" by Mickey Newbury and originally a hit for Kenny Rogers. "Je Suis Votre Papa Sucre" (I Am Your Sugar Daddy) is a short instrumental.

Reception

"Alright" was the fifth single to be released from I Should Coco. While "Caught by the Fuzz", "Mansize Rooster", "Lose It", and "Lenny" all charted (with "Lenny" even scraping the Top Ten in the UK Singles Chart) and were warmly received by the critics, it was "Alright/Time" – the final release from the album – which proved to be their breakthrough single, largely due to the popularity of the song "Alright", which still receives airplay in the United Kingdom.

"Alright/Time" reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart,[4][5] making it Supergrass' highest charting single to date, along with "Richard III". It remained in the top 3 for a month. The song became a huge hit with United Kingdom school leavers that summer, leading to a huge demand for the track back in the United Kingdom.

In 1999, in an interview, Coombes joked "We don't play 'Alright' anymore. We should play it in a minor key, and in the past tense."[6]

Track listing
"Alright"
24-second sample from Supergrass' "Alright". The song's opening verse.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
CD
No. Title Length
1. "Alright"   3:00
2. "Time"   3:09
3. "Condition"   2:43
4. "Je Suis Votre Papa Sucre"   1:46
7" vinyl
No. Title Length
1. "Alright"   3:00
2. "Time"   3:09

Music video

Danny, Gaz and Mick in a scene from the video to "Alright".

The success of the record was helped by a lively promotional video directed by Dom and Nic, featuring the band joyfully messing around on bicycles and a bed on wheels at Portmeirion in North Wales.

Having seen the video, Steven Spielberg approached the band and proposed that they work together on a television series in the style of The Monkees.[7] The group turned him down,[7] preferring to work on their second album In It for the Money. Troy Carpenter, co-director of Nude as the News, claims "the gesture says a lot about the band's personality — one which has stuck with the group throughout its career — which is basically that of a fun-loving rock group whose undeniable musical talent is sometimes overshadowed by the sheer ebullience of its music."[8]

Covers and other versions

References

  1. ↑ "Alright certified award". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  2. ↑ Review of I Should Coco from allmusic.com by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
  3. ↑ Maconie, Stuart (October 1995). "Hey! Hey! We're The Cheeky Monkeys!". Q.
  4. ↑ The Strange Ones Supergrass Site
  5. ↑ Supergrass biography : beginnings, career, success
  6. ↑ 1999 interview with Johnathan Cohen from nudeasthenews.com
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Everdell, Abby (2008-06-06). "Artist of the Day: Supergrass". Spin. Archived from the original on 8 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  8. ↑ Bio of Supergrass at nudeasthenews.com
  9. ↑

External links