Okay, 30+ votes on album 1 was enough to convince me to continue this.
There is a HUGE jump in both quality and content between album 1 and 2. By this point, Al had been on tour, lined up a real band (who is still with him to this day) and a vocal coach, and was getting enough professional advice to make an album which would make him a household name. Rather than being “that nasally-voiced geek with the accordion” he was gonna be “that band who you swore was that other band when the song first came on the radio”, so the accordion would be used a lot less from this point on. And once they heard that Michael Jackson was a fan, he was getting enough respect in the industry that other artists WANTED him to parody their songs, rather than Al having to beg them for permission.
Al himself wanted Midnight Star to be the first single from In 3-D. Fortunately he was talked out of that idea by every single person on earth who had heard Eat It (which was originally performed on stage with accordion, and sounded very cool with it!). This album also got Al his first grammy award, for Best Comedy Recording. We all know that Eat It is probably Al’s best known song ever, but what was YOUR favorite on this album?
= Jocko Homo, Smoke On the Water, Sex, Hey Jude, LA Woman, In A Gadda Da Vidda, Hey Joe, Burning Down the House, Hot Blooded, Every Breath You Take, Should I Stay, Jumping Jack Flash, My Generation
I must have listened to that album a hundred times. Top three (in terms of "often brought to mind ~25 years later) are Eat It, Polka on 45, and I Lost on Jeopardy.
I think this is one of those rare times when the most most well-known one is actually the best one. Eat It is pure genius.
True. But, as mentioned above, Al is a nice guy. Those “Morning Zoo” DJs who do tasteless and moronic parodies do not ask for permission from the writers, nor do they pay for the rights to the songs. This was firmly established in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.. From what I understand, Yankovic actually splits his royalties with the original artist. Given the way artists are screwed by record companies, being parodied by Weird Al may be the only real money they make. I wouldn’t doubt that “White and Nerdy” made more money than “Ridin’ Dirty”.
I love King of Suede. Weird Al just has a way of encompassing the essential parts of a type or feeling and just sum it up. King of Suede does it with cheesy shop owners, “It’s All About the Pentiums” does it with the computer hacker.
If I Could Make Love to a Bottle (parody of Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce) never got an album release, but you can probably find it on youtube. Neither did any of Al’s other racier stuff that he was writing back in the early 80s (I’ve never even HEARD Orgy On My Own, but it was part of his setlist back then, along with Bottle). Dead Car Battery Blues even contained the spoken line “aww shit” at the end!
By the time his parents started going to his concerts (the first time they saw him live was on the In 3-D tour) Al decided he was going to be a clean comedian. Running With Scissors was a bit edgier (transvestite was used on 2 separate songs!), hence the name, but by that day and age, it was pretty tame to what else was being done in the musical comedy world.
Also, the songs which got rejected from Polkas on 45, due to non-permission (but were still played in the concert version): Der Kommissar, 1999 (the first of a number of Prince denials), Bad Boys Get Spanked, She Blinded Me With Science, Stairway To Heaven
Overall or specifically for the artists involved? Because ‘Ridin’ by Chamillionaire was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, and hit number two in the UK - ‘White And Nerdy’ peaked at number nine and only got to 80 in the UK.
Going by that, without knowing overall sales, I’d think it’s fairly likely ‘Ridin’ made more money than ‘White And Nerdy’.
Chamillionaire was on a major label, a place where multi-million selling number 1 records somehow fail to “recoup”. Just ask TLC. I’m sure it made loads for the record company, but I’m also sure getting half of Al’s royalties for no additional work was a very nice surprise.
I agree, and that’s why I asked whether you meant overall or how much money they made specifically for the artists. Weird Al is sort of on a major label too (his label Volcano is part of Jive Records, which is part of Sony Music Entertainment) - but as an established artist I’m sure he has a better contract than Chamillionaire would have had, and I too think ‘White And Nerdy’ probably made more money for the artist than ‘Ridin’ would have.
Actually, now that I look at it closer, Chamillionaire’s album (the one that featured ‘Ridin’) was actually only distributed by Universal - it was issued on his own label, Chamilitary Records. So maybe he did make more money after all. It gets a bit less clear-cut when distributor vs. label comes into it.
Sorry about the hijack! I voted ‘Eat It’, to get back on topic.
I may have mentioned this before, but I think I heard his version of American Pie before the original. Or at least confused them so completely that I was surprised when I learned the original’s lyrics.
This is actually a great album…and possibly Al’s peak. Though maybe not.
My choice is ‘Buy Me A Condo’ which is, like ‘Happy Birthday’ on the first album, an astonishingly wicked send up of American consumer culture from outside.
“So now I’m just a lonely Rastaman
Living in dis American town
Gonna sell me Bob Marley records
Gonna get me some Jackson Browne”
If that didn’t make a suburban kid question his life choices in the 80s something was deeply wrong.
Wow, this totally brought back being fourteen and hanging out with my friends (and cousin) at various youth meetings/excursions at the Christ United Methodist Church in Middletown, Ohio, and blasting the hell out of this on my Sony Walkman knock off. Good times, indeed.
Anyway, I voted for “Buy Me a Condo”, which edged out “Nature Trail to Hell” by a hair. And I was shocked, shocked, I tell you, at how poorly this album and, well, Weird Al in general, has held up for me over the years. This was, like, one of the pinnacles of comedy for me back then. When I was fourteen. Now? Not so much.
As someone who is guilty of posting a number of said album polls, I couldn’t disagree with you more about their obnoxiousness. I mean, this is the kind of thing my friends and I can (and do) spend hours discussing and debating.
Having said that, though, I will concur with your admonition to spread 'em out a little, as they then will likely get more foot traffic, so to speak.
Yeah I wanted to wait until the first album got 30 votes before I did the second one. Now it has 60. Maybe I should just run these once a week? The Metallica guy posted 4 albums in a row!
How does the album by album poll compare to those madness tournaments that were the rage over in the game room a couple years ago (I ran one for Pearl Jam, and Given to Fly won)?
I voted for “Eat It.” I might have done so anyway, but the fact that its video is such a brilliant parody of the original sold me. But the only really weak track on the album is “That Boy Could Dance” (the Kinks did it earlier and better with “Jack the Idiot Dunce”). I love the way Al sings “The Brady Bunch”; “Midnight Star” conjures up fond memories of the late, great “Weekly World News”; and “Nature Trail to Hell” is a strong closer.