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Alfred Matthew “Weird Al” Yankovic[A] (born October 23, 1959) is an American musician, best known for writing and performing comedy songs that often parody specific songs by contemporary musicians.
He also performs original songs that are style pastiches of the work of other acts, as well as polka medleys of popular songs, most of which feature his trademark accordion.
Yankovic’s success has been attributed to his effective use of music videos to further parody pop culture, the songs’ original artists, and the original music videos themselves.
He has directed some of his own music videos and also directed music videos for other artists.
Al’s second effort consists of 11 tracks: 5 parodies, 5 originals, and 1 polka medley! Here’s another major change: every album from here on out (except for Even Worse) will contain a polka medley somewhere in the tracklist.
These medleys are usually comprised of contemporary hit songs, mostly anything the average Joe has been hearing on their local radio stations in the last year or so, reinterpreted as full-fledged balls-to-the-wall over-the-top happy-go-lucky polka music!
We’re talking an onslaught of frantic accordion, bouncy tuba, annoying clarinet, and flamboyant percussion!
The polka-medley du jour on In 3-D is called “Polkas on 45” which is, apparently, a play on something called “Stars on 45”, a Dutch novelty group from the ’80s that mashed up popular songs over a generic drum beat.
That sounds like the pits! On paper, so do these polka medleys, but really they are actually quite jolly good fun!
For example, “Polkas on 45” contains lyrical snippets from Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”, The Doors’ “L.A. Woman”, The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”, The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”, among many others.
SO, over polka music, Al sings in his nasally Weird Al voice “Every breath you take/Every move you make/Every bond you break, every step you take/I’ll be watching you” and then moves right into “Darling you gotta let me know/Should I stay or should I go?…“.
The five parody songs are as follows: “Eat It” (“Beat It” by Michael Jackson), “The Brady Bunch” (“The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats), “I Lost on Jeopardy” (“Jeopardy” by The Greg Kihn Band), “King of Suede” (“King of Pain” by The Police), and “Theme from Rocky XIII” (“Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor).
Of these five the only one with zero lasting power was “Jeopardy”, so kudos once again to Al for choosing his parody targets somewhat wisely.
“Eat It” and “Theme from Rocky XIII” are both about food, helping ensnare his morbidly obese target demographic nicely!
Al even cracked the Top 40 with “Eat It”, which largely clinched his status as a household name from this album forward.
The only miss here is “The Brady Bunch”, which, halfway through, becomes just the lyrics of The Brady Bunch theme! Come on Al, now’s not the time in your career to make lazy songwriting decisions!
It’s kind of funny hearing these early Weird Al parodies lacking the more impressive lyrical mastery from later-career parodies, not to mention that they’re all only kind of funny.
He really does get better at this as time goes on.
Tracklist
1. Eat It - 3:20
Written-By – Al Yankovic, Michael Jackson
2. Theme From Rocky XIII – 3:37
Written-By – Al Yankovic, Frank Sullivan, James Peterik
3. I Love Rocky Road – 2:36
Written-By – Al Yankovic, Alan Merrill, Jake Hooker
4. King of Suede – 4:15
Written-By – Al Yankovic, Sting
5. I Lost on Jeopardy – 3:29
Guest [Special Guest Appearance By] – Don Pardo
Written-By – A. Yankovic, G.Kihn, S. Wright
6. My Bologna – 2:02
Written-By – A. Yankovic, B.Averre, D.Fieger
7. Ricky – 2:37
Voice [Voice Of Lucy] – Tress MacNeille
Written-By – A. Yankovic, N.Chinn-M.Chapman, E.Daniel, H.Adamson
8. The Brady Bunch – 2:41
Written-By – Al Yankovic, F.DeVol, Ivan Doroschuk, S.Schwartz
9. Stop Draggin’ My Car Around – 3:15
Written-By – A. Yankovic, M.Campbell, T.Petty
10. Another One Rides the Bus – 2:38
Written-By – A. Yankovic, J.Deacon
11. Polkas On 45 – 4:20
Companies, etc.
Record Company – Scotti Brothers Entertainment Co.
Licensed From – Scotti Brothers Records, Inc.
Distributed By – Canyon Records, Inc.
Manufactured By – Canyon Records, Inc.
Produced For – High Calibre Productions, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Scotti Brothers Records, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – CBS Inc.
Copyright © – CBS Inc.
Made By – Canyon Records, Inc.
Recorded At – Santa Monica Sound Recorders
Recorded At – The Doctor Demento Show
Recorded At – Cherokee Studios
Credits
Accordion – “Weird Al” Yankovic
Art Direction – Takaomi Shibayama
Backing Vocals [Female] – Andrea Robinson, Dawn Smithey, Joan Manners, Lisa Popeil, Pattie Brooks, Petsye Powell, Zaidee Cole
Backing Vocals [Male] – Al, Damaskas, The Doctor, Jake Jay, Jon, Rick, Steve
Banjo, Ukulele – Richard Bennett
Bass – Steve Jay
Bass Guitar, Banjo, Drums [Talking Drums] – Steve Jay
Bass Vocals – Bob Tebow
Bongos – Joel Miller
Clarinet – Joel Peskin
Concept By [Cover Concept], Cover [Cover Concept] – Yasuo Kuni-Eda
Drums, Percussion – Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz
Engineer [Engineered By] – Peter Kelsey, Tony Papa
Guitar [Guitars] – Rick Derringer
Harp – Dorothy Remsen
Illustration [Cover Illustration] – Hideharu Ishii
Lead Vocals – “Weird Al” Yankovic
Mandolin – Rick Derringer
Performer [Musical Hands] – “Musical Mike” Kieffer
Piano, Synthesizer – “Weird Al” Yankovic
Producer [Produced By] – Rick Derringer
Saxophone – Jimmy Zavala
Saxophone, Harmonica – William K. Anderson
Synthesizer, Piano – Pat Regan
Trumpet – Warren Luening
Tuba – Jim Self
Vocals – “Weird Al” Yankovic
Japanese compilation containing tracks from “Weird Al” Yankovic’s first two albums.
[Tracks A3, A6, B1, B3, B4:] Taken from the Rock ‘N’ Roll Records Lp “Weird Al” Yankovic
[Tracks A1, A2, A4, A5, B2, B5:] Taken from Rock ‘N’ Roll Records Lp “Weird Al” Yankovic In 3-D
“Another One Rides The Bus” was recorded live on the Dr. Demento Show, KMET, Los Angeles, 9/14/80.
“I Love Rocky Road”, “My Bologna”, and “Stop Draggin’ My Car Around” were recorded at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood […].
All other selections were recorded at Santa Monica Sound Recorders […].
Notes
Released: May 1, 1984
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Parody, Novelty
Runtime: 34:50
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