Best song on Weird Al Yankovic's Alapalooza

Cafe Society
1

Al’s worst album, IMO. He put all of his best ideas into OTDE, which came out about a year earlier, and this album had to get rushed to shelves while Jurassic Park the movie was still the thing everyone was talking about. This is also Al’s only album where the parodies are way stronger than the originals.

  • Alapalooza didn’t do great in the USA, but it sold like crazy in Canada, leading to Al & his band doing a massive Canadian tour (with a couple of American stops, including about 5 concerts in Alaska!). The first time I saw his band live was on this tour.

  • Many of this album’s sales came from people mistaking the cover art for being the real Jurassic Park soundtrack. They were forced to put a big sticker on the cover saying “NO, this is NOT the Jurassic Park soundtrack!”

  • Rejected from this album was Green Eggs & Ham (Numb by U2). U2 loved the song, but Dr Seuss’s estate wouldn’t allow its release.

  • The Jurassic Park music video gave Al his 5th Grammy nomination (but lost to Peter Gabriel)

  • The Japanese release of this album featured Jurassic Park sung in Japanese by Al.

  • Billy Ray Cyrus allowed the release of the Acky Breaky parody only under the condition that the proceeds from the song go to charity

  • Talk Soup was written for the theme song to the show…and they only ended up using the instrumental version of it

2

Was Headline News actually on it? Wiki says no. I thought it was exclusive to Al in the Box. I agree on the ‘worst album’ designation and the superiority of the parodies to originals on this one.

3

Yeah, this one was totally unmemorable except for Jurassic Park and Livin’ In The Fridge. I voted for the latter, as the lyrics are funnier.

ETA: However, She Never Told Me She Was A Mime gets a nod for best song title ever.

4

Headline News was actually released about a year later, as a stand alone single. However, it’s grouped with Alapalooza in my itunes, where I copied the track listing from. Oh well, vote for it if you think it’s better than anything on the proper album.

Mime is one of Al’s most boring songs, and also one of his longest. One of the big reasons this is my least favorite of his albums.

5

I actually like Young, Dumb, and Ugly better than Jurassic Park.

But Livin’ in the Fridge is the single best song on the album, with no competition.

6

I concur.

7

From a career high to an all-time low in the space of a year. As a Peter Gabriel and Prince fan, I should like this album more than I do.

I think “Bohemian Polka” is the funniest track, but musically I enjoy “Frank’s 2000” TV" most, so I voted for that.

8

I like “Bedrock Anthem”, but I like “Jurassic Park” too and the video is amazing. Plus “MacArthur Park” is a rich source of comedy (Dave Thomas as Richard Harris on “Mel’s Rockpile” is an SCTV classic!).

9

But next is Bad Hair Day…

That one should seriously be a multiple choice poll.