Different Class is an album by English Britpop

Britpop

Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...

 band Pulp

Pulp (band)

Pulp are an English alternative rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their lineup consists of Jarvis Cocker , Russell Senior , Candida Doyle , Mark Webber , Steve Mackey and Nick Banks ....

. It was released in 1995 at the height of Britpop, and led to the band being regarded as part of that movement. Two of the singles on the album – "Common People" (which reached number two in the UK singles chart) and "Disco 2000

Disco 2000 (song)

"Disco 2000" is a hit single by British band Pulp, released in 1995. It reached #7 in the UK Singles Chart. It was the third single from the album Different Class, following "Common People" and the double A-side "Mis-Shapes"/"Sorted for E's & Wizz", both of which reached #2.The song tells the story...

" (which reached number seven) – were especially notable, and helped propel Pulp to nationwide fame. A "deluxe edition" of Different Class was released on 11 September 2006. It contains a second disc of B-sides

B-Sides

B-Sides is an iTunes-exclusive album from the Coventry Trio The Enemy, consisting of ten songs that were B-sides to the single releases from their debut album We'll Live and Die in These Towns.-Track list:#Fear Killed the Youth of Our Nation...

, demos and rarities.

The album was the winner of the 1996 Mercury Music Prize. In 1998 Q readers voted Different Class the 37th greatest album of all time; a repeat poll in 2006 put it at number 85. In 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 46 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2004 it was voted number 70 of Channel 4's 100 greatest albums.

The inspiration for the title came to Cocker in Smashing, a nightclub on Regent Street

Regent Street

Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...

 in London. Cocker had a friend who used the phrase "different class" to describe something that was "in a class of its own". Cocker liked the double meaning, with its allusions to the British social class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

 system which was a theme of some of the songs on the album. A message on the back of record also references this idea:

Track listing

All songs written by Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...

, Nick Banks

Nick Banks

Nick Banks is the English drummer in the British band, Pulp. He lives in Sheffield with his wife Sarah Banks, two children , and his dog Geoff...

, Steve Mackey

Steve Mackey

Steve Mackey is a British musician and record producer best known for playing bass guitar in the band Pulp. He also played bass for Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker in the latter's solo career, and worked as a songwriter and producer with artists such as M.I.A...

, Russell Senior

Russell Senior

Russell Senior is the guitarist and violinist of the band Pulp.Senior grew up in Sheffield. Whilst at University in Bath, he formed the "Dada Society" and appeared as the lead role in a dramatic adaptation of Kafka's The Trial...

, Candida Doyle

Candida Doyle

Candida Doyle is a keyboard player and occasional backing vocalist with the band Pulp, which she joined in 1984...

 and Mark Webber

Mark Webber (guitarist)

Mark Webber is an English rock guitarist.He is most famous for playing in Pulp , and appearing on all of their albums since their Mercury Music Prize winning collection Different Class...

, unless otherwise noted.
Different Class was released under the title Common People in Japan on 16 November 1995

Second Class from 1995 (limited German/Japanese bonus disc)

Bonus disc from 2006 deluxe edition

Tracks 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 from deluxe edition bonus CD were previously unavailable

Pulp

• Jarvis Cocker – Vocals, Vox Marauder Guitar, Ovation 12 String Guitar, Sigma Acoustic Guitar, Roland Vocoder Plus VP-330, Roland SH-09, Mellotron, Micromoog, Synare
• Russell Senior – Fender Jazzmaster Guitar, Violin
• Candida Doyle – Farfisa Compact Professional II Organ, Ensoniq ASR 10, Korg Trident II, Minimoog, Fender Rhodes Piano, Roland Juno 6, Roland SH-09
• Steve Mackey – Musicman Sabre Bass
• Mark Webber – Gibson ES 345 Guitar, Gibson Les Paul Guitar, Gibson Firebird Guitar, Sigma Acoustic Guitar, Casio Tonebank CT-470, Fender Rhodes Piano, Roland Juno 6
• Nick Banks – Yamaha Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Percussion

Additional Musicians

• Matthew Vaughan - Programming
• Olle Romo - Programming
• Anthony Genn - Additional Programming
• Mark Haley - Additional Programming
• Chris Thomas - Additional Guitar and Keyboards
• Anne Dudley
  Anne Dudley
  Anne Dudley is an English composer and pop musician, and was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in both the classical and pop genres. She is perhaps best known, however, as one of the core members of the synthpop band Art of Noise and also as a film...
  
   - Orchestral Arrangement and Conducting
• Gavyn Wright - Orchestra Leader

Sleeve

Initial copies of the CD and vinyl album came with 6 different double-sided inserts of alternative cover art, and a sticker invited you to "Choose your own front cover". In all standard copies thereafter these 12 individual covers made up the CD booklet, with the wedding photograph used as the actual cover.

The full details of the wedding photograph used on the standard sleeve editions were described on 2011 tour posters:

LOCATION: St Barnabas Church, East Molesey

TIME: 12pm, Saturday 12th August 1995

EVENT: Sharon & Dominic's Wedding

PHOTOGRAPHER: Donald Milne

CAMERA: 1979 Hasselblad 500CM with 80mm lens

FILM STOCK: Fuji Super G-400

DESIGN: Blue Source

ORIGINAL SLEEVE NOTES: "Please understand - we don't want no trouble. We just want the right to be different. That's all."

Legacy

In 2006, British Hit Singles & Albums and NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

organised a poll of which, 40,000 people worldwide voted for the 100 best albums ever and Different Class was placed at #54 on the list.