Polka Party! | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 21, 1986 | |||
Recorded | April 22–September 1, 1986 | |||
Studio | Santa Monica Sound Recorders, Santa Monica | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 34:07 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | Rick Derringer | |||
"Weird Al" Yankovic chronology | ||||
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Singles from Polka Party! | ||||
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Polka Party! is the fourth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on October 21, 1986. The album was produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between April and September 1986, [1] the album was Yankovic's follow-up to his successful 1985 release, Dare to Be Stupid . The album's lead single, "Living With a Hernia", failed to chart.
The music on Polka Party! is built around parodies and pastiches of pop and rock music of the mid-1980s, featuring direct parodies of James Brown, Mick Jagger, El DeBarge and Robert Palmer. The album also features many "style parodies", or musical imitations that come close to, but do not copy, existing artists. These style parodies include imitations of specific artists like Talking Heads, as well as imitations of various musical genres like country music.
Peaking at No. 177 on the Billboard 200, Polka Party! was met with mixed-to-negative reviews and was considered a commercial and critical failure. Despite this, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1988. Polka Party! is one of Yankovic's few studio albums not to be certified either Gold or Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Yankovic entered the recording studio in April 1986 to begin the sessions to his follow-up to 1985's Dare to Be Stupid . [1] To produce the album, Yankovic brought in former McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer, who had also produced Yankovic's previous albums. [2] Backing Yankovic were Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, Steve Jay on bass, and Jim West on guitar. [2] The album was recorded in roughly three sessions. The first session took place between April 22 and 23, and yielded four originals: "Don't Wear Those Shoes", "One of Those Days", "Dog Eat Dog", and "Christmas at Ground Zero". The second session, which spanned August 4–5, produced three parodies: "Living with a Hernia", "Addicted to Spuds", and "Here's Johnny". The final session, which lasted from August 29 to September 1, produced the parody "Toothless People", an original song named "Good Enough for Now", and the album's titular polka medley. [1] Thematically, Yankovic described the record as "not a whole lot different than" the other albums he had recorded, calling the process "even a bit formulaic". [3]
On April 22, 1986, Yankovic began recording three new original songs for his next album: "Don't Wear Those Shoes", "One of Those Days", and "Dog Eat Dog". [1] Although "Don't Wear Those Shoes" is an original composition, Yankovic admitted that the intro was inspired by the style of The Kinks. [4] Lyrically, the song is a plea by the singer to his wife not to not wear certain shoes which he cannot stand. [2] "One of Those Days" is a song detailing horrible things as if they were everyday annoyances. Each horrible thing escalates up to global annihilation while more mundane annoyances pop up at different times. [2]
"Dog Eat Dog" is a style parody of Talking Heads. Described as a "tongue-in-cheek look at office life", the song was inspired by Yankovic's past experience of working in the mailroom and traffic department at the Westwood One radio station. [5] He noted, "At first I thought [the job] was kinda cool that I had a phone and a desk and a little cubicle to call my own, but after a while I felt like my soul had been sucked out of me." [5] The song features a line directly parodying the Talking Heads song "Once In a Lifetime": "Sometimes I tell myself, this is not my beautiful stapler/Sometimes I tell myself, this is not my beautiful chair!" This mirrors a similar line in the Talking Heads song: "You may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful house/You may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful wife". [6]
On April 23, Yankovic recorded "Christmas at Ground Zero". [1] The song, "a cheery little tune about death, destruction and the end of the world" was the result of Scotti Brothers Records' insistence that Yankovic release a Christmas record. [5] After Yankovic presented the song to his label, they relented, because it was "a little different from what they were expecting." [5] After the song's release, some radio stations banned the record, a move that Yankovic attributes to "most people [not wanting] to hear about nuclear annihilation during the holiday season." [5] Following the September 11 attacks, when the general term "ground zero" was co-opted as a proper name for the World Trade Center site where two of those attacks took place, the disturbing lyrics caused this song to be banned largely from radio. [7] [8] Yankovic wanted the song to receive a video, but due to budget reasons, his label did not agree. Yankovic, however, directed one himself which was mostly made up of stock footage, with a live action finale that was filmed in a run-down part of the Bronx, New York that "looked like a bomb had fallen on it." [7] [9]
The final original that was recorded was "Good Enough for Now", a country music pastiche about how the singer's lover, while not the best, will do for now. [1] [2] [10]
On August 4, Yankovic began recording parodies starting with "Living with a Hernia". [1] The song, a spoof of "Living in America" by James Brown—which was also the theme to the 1985 film Rocky IV —is about hernias. [2] [5] When it came time to pick a song to parody as the lead single for Polka Party! Scotti Brothers Records "had some very strong ideas" and wished to have Yankovic parody a musician who was signed on the same label. After "Living in America" became a hit, the record label insisted that Yankovic parody the song, to which Yankovic obliged. [11] In order to accurately write the song, Yankovic researched the various types of hernias. Yankovic noted that "it was a real thrill to do James Brown. I'm a total non-dancer, never went to any dances in high school, but if I analytically dissect a dance routine I can figure it out." [5] A choreographer named Chester Whitmore was hired to accurately create the dance scenes featured in the video, which was shot on the concert set actually used in the movie Rocky IV. [5] The second parody recorded was "Addicted to Spuds", a pastiche of "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer, about a man's obsession for potatoes and potato-based dishes. [1] [2] A music video for the song was never made because there was a strict budget for videos for the album, and Yankovic felt that the video would be "one joke" and not really worth its own video. A parody of Palmer's video, however, was later inserted into Al's "UHF" video. [12]
On August 5, Yankovic recorded "Here's Johnny", a parody of "Who's Johnny" by El DeBarge. [1] The song, a loving ode to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson announcer Ed McMahon, features John Roarke of the television series Fridays fame doing an impression of McMahon's voice. [5] [13] According to Yankovic, Peter Wolf, the man who wrote "Who's Johnny", enjoyed the parody idea so much that he personally brought into the studio the floppy disc that contained the song's programmed synthesizer parts. [3] The final parody recorded for the album was "Toothless People", a play on Mick Jagger's "Ruthless People", which was recorded on August 29, 1986. The song, about elderly people who are missing their teeth, was written after Yankovic heard it would be the theme to the 1986 film Ruthless People . Assuming the song would be a hit, Yankovic requested and received permission from Jagger to record a parody version. Jagger's song, however, was never a hit, but because Jagger had "approved" the parody, he decided that failing to produce it would be an "insult" to the artist. [14]
The album's polka medley, the titular "Polka Party!", was recorded on the same day as "Here's Johnny". [1] This was Yankovic's third polka medley, and his only medley to bear the same name as an album. Like his other medleys, the song is a conglomeration of then-popular songs in music. [15]
To promote the album's release, Scotti Brothers Records purchased full-page ads in Billboard magazine that advertised the release as Yankovic's "biggest bash yet". [16] Unlike previous albums, Yankovic did not undertake a tour to promote Polka Party! Instead, he opened for the American rock band the Monkees; Yankovic later joked that the Monkees merely "closed" for him. [5] Yankovic explained that while it "was a fun tour" and that the crowds were very enthusiastic, the tension between the Monkees was obvious; on his website, he wrote that while the band members "are all terrific people individually", they "didn't seem to get along all that great when they weren't on stage." [17]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Daily Vault | F [10] |
Pitchfork | 6.1/10 [19] |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Polka Party! received mixed to negative reviews from critics. AllMusic reviewer Eugene Chadbourne gave the album three stars and wrote that "just about anyone could feel let down by this album." [18] Chadbourne was largely critical of the parody choices, noting that many of the original versions would be forgotten in "fifteen years". [18] Christopher Thelen from The Daily Vault gave Polka Party! an F and described it as an album that "seemed like it could well have been the 'last call' for Yankovic." [10] Thelen heavily criticized the record, writing that both the parodies and originals were not good and that "Yankovic [was] going through the motions". [10] Rolling Stone awarded the album three-and-a-half stars, tying it with the 1992 album Off the Deep End and the 1999 release Running with Scissors as Yankovic's best-rated album. [20] Although it was not a critical success, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1987, [21] but lost to Bill Cosby's Those of You with or Without Children, You'll Understand . [22]
Despite the album's lackluster reception, many of the songs on the album, such as "Dog Eat Dog", "Addicted to Spuds", and "Christmas at Ground Zero", went on to become fan favorites and live staples. [5] [23] [24] [25] Two of the album's tracks, "Living with a Hernia" and "Addicted to Spuds", appeared on Yankovic's first greatest hits album (1988), [26] "Christmas at Ground Zero" appeared on the second volume (1994). [27] In addition, the 1994 box set Permanent Record: Al in the Box contained five of the album's songs: "Addicted to Spuds", "Dog Eat Dog", "Here's Johnny", "Living with a Hernia", and "Christmas at Ground Zero". [5] Only "Dog Eat Dog", however, appeared on Yankovic's 2009 Essential collection, although the 3.0 version contained "Living with a Hernia". [28] [29]
Polka Party! was released October 21, 1986. [21] After it was released, the album peaked at No. 177 on the Billboard 200. [21] Compared to Yankovic's previous albums— Dare to Be Stupid peaked at No. 50 and In 3-D peaked at No. 17 [21] —Polka Party! was considered a commercial disappointment for the comedian. The album was the lowest-charting studio album released by Yankovic [21] and is one of his few studio albums not to be certified either Gold or Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). [21] The others include the soundtrack to his film UHF (1989) and Poodle Hat (2003). [21]
Yankovic was dismayed by the album's lackluster reception. He noted that he "thought it was the end of [his] career". [5] Yankovic explained that "I figured I'd peaked with 'Eat It' and 'Like a Surgeon' and now people were slowly forgetting about me and I was well on my way to obscurity." [5] However, Yankovic's next album, Even Worse , would resurrect his career and become his best-selling album at the time; the experience led Yankovic to realize that "careers have peaks and valleys, and whenever I go through the rough times, another peak might be right around the corner." [5]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Parody of | Length |
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1. | "Living with a Hernia" | Daniel Hartman, Charlie Midnight, Alfred Yankovic | "Living in America" by James Brown | 3:20 |
2. | "Dog Eat Dog" | Yankovic | Style parody of Talking Heads [5] | 3:42 |
3. | "Addicted to Spuds" | Robert Palmer, Yankovic | "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer | 3:50 |
4. | "One of Those Days" | Yankovic | Original | 3:18 |
5. | "Polka Party!" | Various | A polka medley including:
| 3:15 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Parody of | Length |
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6. | "Here's Johnny" | Peter Wolf, Ina Wolf, Yankovic | "Who's Johnny" by El DeBarge | 3:24 |
7. | "Don't Wear Those Shoes" | Yankovic | Original | 3:36 |
8. | "Toothless People" | Daryl Hohl, Michael Jagger, David Stewart, Yankovic | "Ruthless People" by Mick Jagger | 3:23 |
9. | "Good Enough for Now" | Yankovic | Style parody of country love songs [10] | 3:03 |
10. | "Christmas at Ground Zero" | Yankovic | Style parody of Phil Spector-produced Christmas songs [25] | 3:09 |
Total length: | 34:07 |
Credits adapted from LP liner notes. [2]
Band members
Additional musicians
Technical
Chart | Peak position |
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US Billboard 200 [21] | 177 |
Bad Hair Day is the ninth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on March 12, 1996. It was Yankovic's last studio album for the Scotti Brothers label before it was purchased by Volcano Entertainment in 1999. The album produced an array of hit comedy singles; lead single "Amish Paradise", which lampoons both Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" and the Amish lifestyle, charted at No. 53 on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Gump", which parodies "Lump" by the Presidents of the United States of America and the movie Forrest Gump, reached at No. 102.
Running with Scissors is the tenth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on June 29, 1999. It was the fourth studio album self-produced by Yankovic, and his first album for Volcano Records after its acquisition of Scotti Brothers. The musical styles on the album are built around parodies and pastiches of pop and rock music of the late 1990s, largely targeting alternative rock and hip-hop. The album's lead single, "The Saga Begins", however, was a parody of the 1971 single "American Pie" by Don McLean, and it recounts the plot of the film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which was released around the same time. None of the album's singles charted domestically, although "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi", a parody of "Pretty Fly " by the Offspring, charted at number 67 in Australia.
Alapalooza is the eighth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1993. By the completion of his previous album, Off the Deep End, Yankovic had already written all of the original songs that he planned to use on his next release. This new album, which would eventually be titled Alapalooza in reference to the music festival Lollapalooza, consisted of seven original songs and five parodies. It produced three parody singles: "Jurassic Park", "Bedrock Anthem", and "Achy Breaky Song". "Jurassic Park" was a top five hit on the Canadian magazine The Record's single chart.
Off the Deep End is the seventh studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1992. This album was the first album self-produced by Yankovic, after six albums with Rick Derringer. Recorded between June 1990 and January 1992, the album was a follow-up to the unsuccessful soundtrack to Yankovic's 1989 film UHF. Off the Deep End and its lead single "Smells Like Nirvana" helped to revitalize Yankovic's career after a lull following his last hit single, "Fat", in 1988.
UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff is the sixth studio album and soundtrack album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on July 18, 1989. The album is the final of Yankovic's to be produced by former McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between December 1988 and May 1989, the album served as the official soundtrack to the 1989 film of the same name, although the original score by John Du Prez is omitted. The album's lead single was the titular "UHF", although it was not a hit and did not chart.
Even Worse is the fifth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on April 12, 1988. The album was produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between November 1987 and February 1988, this album helped to revitalize Yankovic's career after the critical and commercial failure of his previous album Polka Party! (1986).
Dare to Be Stupid is the third studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on June 18, 1985. The album was one of many Yankovic records produced by former McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between August 1984 and March 1985, the album was Yankovic's first studio album released following the success of 1984's In 3-D, which included the Top 40 single "Eat It".
"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D is the second studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on February 28, 1984, by Rock 'n Roll Records. The album was one of many produced by former McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between October and December 1983, the album was Yankovic's follow-up to his modestly successful debut LP, "Weird Al" Yankovic.
"Weird Al" Yankovic is the debut studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. The album was the first of many produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Mostly recorded in March 1982, the album was released by Rock 'n Roll Records as an LP and on Compact Cassette in 1983.
"Headline News" is a parody song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of the Crash Test Dummies' 1993 hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm". It was released as the lead-off single for the compilation box set Permanent Record: Al in the Box on September 27, 1994. The song was written after Yankovic's label insisted he craft a new song to promote the album; Yankovic in turn combined the music of the Crash Test Dummies' song with three news stories that were popular in late 1993 and early 1994.
The Food Album is a compilation album by American singer-songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on June 22, 1993, by Scotti Brothers Records. The release features ten of Yankovic's song parodies, all of which pertain to food. A similar album, The TV Album, which features songs entirely about television, would be released two years later.
"Christmas at Ground Zero" is an original song by "Weird Al" Yankovic, the tenth and final track on his 1986 album, Polka Party! and the final single from the album, released just in time for the 1986 Christmas season. The song is a style parody of Phil Spector-produced Christmas songs.
Greatest Hits Volume II is a compilation album of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic, featuring his best known songs that did not appear on "Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits, plus the new single "Headline News" which had first appeared on the box set Permanent Record: Al In The Box, released a month prior. The compilation album was met with mostly positive critical reviews, and it managed to chart on the Billboard 200 at number 198. However, it ranks as one of Yankovic's least-selling records.
Permanent Record: Al in the Box is a four disc compilation box set of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on September 27, 1994. The album, released by Scotti Brothers Records so that the label could make monetary projections for the fiscal year, collects Yankovic's favorite songs from his first eight studio albums. The collection also includes alternate versions of "My Bologna", "Happy Birthday", "UHF" and the new single, "Headline News", a parody of "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by Crash Test Dummies. It peaked at number 104 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits is a compilation album of parody and original songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic, featuring his best known songs from his first five studio albums, all of which were released in the 1980s. "Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits was met with mostly positive reviews from critics, with Heather Phrase of AllMusic noting that it provided a good overview of the early part of Yankovic's career. Despite this, the album failed to chart upon release, and ranks as one of Yankovic's lowest-selling records.
"Like a Surgeon" is a song recorded by "Weird Al" Yankovic that appears as the opening track on his third studio album, Dare to Be Stupid (1985). It was released as the album's second single on June 4, 1985, by Scotti Brothers Records. It was issued as a 7", 12", and picture disc. A parody of the pop song "Like a Virgin" by Madonna, its lyrics describe a hospital environment, with the same melody as Madonna's original. The track was written by Yankovic, Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, the latter two are credited as co-writers due to the "Like a Virgin" sample. Madonna came up with the parody's title, an act Yankovic generally discourages. Rick Derringer served as the executive producer.
"Living with a Hernia" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. The song is a parody of "Living in America" by James Brown, from the film Rocky IV. The song mostly describes the terrible "aggravation" and "back pain" that a hernia causes. The narrator himself claims to be suffering from a hernia, and that he's "Got to have an operation".
"Jurassic Park" is a parody of Richard Harris's version of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park", written and performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic; it was released both as a single and as part of Yankovic's Alapalooza album in October 1993. "Jurassic Park" was penned by Yankovic after he remembered the enjoyment he had when he combined a classic rock track with a recent movie theme with his 1985 song "Yoda". Yankovic decided to combine the plot of the recent movie Jurassic Park—a film about a park on a fictional island where geneticists have succeeded in cloning dinosaurs—with the classic Richard Harris track "MacArthur Park".
"Yoda" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic from his third album, Dare to Be Stupid (1985). It is a parody of the song "Lola" by the Kinks. Inspired by the events of the movie The Empire Strikes Back, the song is told from the point of view of Jedi-in-training Luke Skywalker and concerns his dealings with Master Yoda on the planet Dagobah. The song was initially written and recorded in 1980, during the original release of The Empire Strikes Back and achieved success on The Dr. Demento Show; however, securing permission from both Star Wars creator George Lucas and "Lola" songwriter Ray Davies delayed the physical release of the song for about five years.
Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic is a 15-album box set by American comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on November 24, 2017. Squeeze Box marks Yankovic's second box set since 1994's Permanent Record: Al in the Box.
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