Straight Outta Cold Beer

In 2015, Shelton began working on If I'm Honest, his tenth studio album, which details his personal and romantic life following his divorce from musician Miranda Lambert; despite the majority of the tracks on the album being recent events in his life, he wanted to write a song about partying, even though he admitted to not being able to do it as often as he used to.[2] He further discussed his inspiration behind the track to Rolling Stone's Beville Dunkerley:

Basically it’s just about having a throwdown out in the woods — that’s what we used to do in high school. I can’t honestly sit here and say that I do it much anymore, I’m getting too old, but it’s fun for me to sing about those times and the crazy stuff that I used to do, and the crazy stuff that I know somewhere, as we speak right now, kids are doing somewhere in somebody's field. I know you're tearing it up out there.[2]

Warner Bros. Nashville issued "Straight Outta Cold Beer" as the album's third promotional single on May 13, 2016,[3] following "Friends" on April 8 and "Go Ahead and Break My Heart" on May 9.[4][5] "Straight Outta Cold Beer" also serves as the opener to the record.[6][7] "Straight Outta Cold Beer" was written and composed by Marv Green, Ben Hayslip, and Justin Wilson,[8] while production was solely handled by Shelton's longtime producer Scott Hendricks.[9] Shelton sings "about lacking suds" from partying in the lyrics,[10] which Entertainment Weekly's Jim Farber described as "an ode to getting soused".[11] The singer boasts that there is nothing fake about him in the lyrics.[12]

"Straight Outta Cold Beer" was positively received by music critics, with many of them describing it as a "party" song. Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times singled it out for being a "sly party tune" among the other tracks on If I'm Honest.[13] Similarly, Keith Harris from Rolling Stone called it a "rowdy party-starter" and appreciated its word play reference to the 1988 N.W.A album Straight Outta Compton in the title.[14] Entertainment Tonight's Sophie Schillaci declared it a "fun track" that stayed true to the singer's "classic country roots".[1] A staff member from WUSN enjoyed the recording, and claimed it would make anyone more excited for If I'm Honest, which was then unreleased.[3] Regarding the subject matter of "Straight Outta Cold Beer", Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic found Shelton to be "rais[ing] a little hell".[15] Robyn Collins from Radio.com created a list of the "5 Best Songs on Blake Shelton's If I'm Honest" and included "Straight Outta Cold Beer". She wrote, "this party anthem is another perfect country-boy song that says some of the same things in brand new ways with music that’ll make you have to tap a boot."[16]

For the week ending April 30, 2016, "Straight Outta Cold Beer" debuted at number 36 on the Hot Country Songs chart.[17] Additionally, the single was the week's 23rd best selling digital country song,[18] selling approximately 14,000 copies in its first week of availability.[19] In its second week available as a digital download, an additional 3,000 copies were purchased, increasing its total sales to over 17,000.[20]