Go to Heaven is the eleventh studio album (sixteenth overall) by rock band the Grateful Dead, released April 28, 1980, by Arista Records.

[2] As with the previous two albums, they used an outside producer, per an agreement with Clive Davis, and in the hope of a more mainstream production with greater commercial potential (and perhaps a hit single).

[3] With track construction stretching past a couple months, Lyons simultaneously began working with Aerosmith, taking over the production of Night in the Ruts.

[4] The album was recorded at the band's own studio; however, as happened while finishing Terrapin Station, overdubs were made in New York City (at Media Sound) while the Dead toured the region.

Both were composed with his writing partner Robert Hunter: the lyrically obscure, Berry-esque rocker, "Alabama Getaway" and the meticulously arranged "Althea".

A third Garcia-Hunter effort, "What'll You Raise," was not recorded to the guitarist's satisfaction during the sessions after failing to enter their live rotation; it was ultimately released as a bonus track on the album's 2004/2006 reissue.

[8] Folk standard "Don't Ease Me In" had been played in the band's former incarnation as Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, and was the A-side of the first Grateful Dead single.

Worse, to rock fans and Deadheads, was the connotation with disco, represented by the tailored white suits the band wore in the photo.

Weir had titled the album and his original idea for the back cover was to have the white suits in rags, with the scraggly band lying among empty wine bottles, to convey the joke "Go to Heaven/Go to Hell".

[2] With the back cover illustrated instead with a somewhat nondescript phoenix, the humorous dichotomy and winking irony were lost and some buyers mistakenly assumed the Dead were committing to disco – even though much of the album returned to the rock and blues of the band's previous releases.

To promote the upcoming album and single, the Grateful Dead again appeared on Saturday Night Live, playing "Alabama Getaway" and "Saint of Circumstance".

Mydland's vocals resembled Michael McDonald to some critics who compared his California soft rock influence to the direction taken by the Doobie Brothers.

J. M. DeMatteis's review in Rolling Stone summarized the album as "more of the same uninspired fluff that's become the Grateful Dead's recorded stock in trade", though he also acclaimed Mydland's contributions.

[15] In 2015, Classic Rock Review wrote, "While this may be a far cry from the group's lauded stage improvisation, it made for an enjoyable studio album which holds up decades later....

"[21] "Althea" became a concert staple[14] and was ranked as the fifth best Grateful Dead song of all time by Stereogum, which said that the studio version "captures the band at its swampiest."

[22] Bassist Phil Lesh said "The cover, featuring us in Saturday Night Fever disco suits against a white background, reinforced the impression that we were 'going commercial'.

Regardless of the reaction from hardcore Deadheads, Go to Heaven sold fairly well after its release in April 1980, making number twenty-three on the charts and recouping its studio costs.