Polka Party! is the fourth album by song parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1986. Commercially, the album was a failure, as both Dare to be Stupid and Weird Al Yankovic in 3-D, his previous two albums, outsold it. The album peaked at #176 on the Billboard 200.
This album is known for having three of its four parodies be of theme songs to then-recent movies: Rocky IV ("Living in America" parodied into "Living with a Hernia"), Ruthless People ("Ruthless People" parodied into "Toothless People"), and Short Circuit ("Who's Johnny?" parodied into "Here's Johnny"). This is also the only album by Weird Al that is named after one of his polka medleys.
Due to low sales the album was discontinued along with various other Yankovic albums in August 2009.
Track listing
| Track |
Title |
Length |
(Style) Parody of |
Description |
| 1 |
"Living with a Hernia" |
3:20 |
"Living in America" by James Brown |
The song is about hernias. The video for which was shot on the concert set used in the movie Rocky IV. |
| 2 |
"Dog Eat Dog" |
3:42 |
Style parody of Talking Heads |
A loving ode to the corporate fast track. There is a line directly parodying "Once In a Lifetime"; "Sometimes I tell myself, this is not my beautiful stapler. Sometimes I tell myself this is not my beautiful chair!" Indeed, the entire song is very much an ode to Heads-esque new wave music, from the way Yankovic imitates Byrne's vocal "tics" to the arrangement of instruments. |
| 3 |
"Addicted to Spuds" |
3:50 |
"Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer |
About a man's obsession for potatoes and potato-related products. |
| 4 |
"One of Those Days" |
3:18 |
Original |
A song describing 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. |
| 5 |
"Polka Party!" |
3:15 |
Polka Medley |
A polka medley including the following songs:
|
| 6 |
"Here's Johnny" |
3:24 |
"Who's Johnny" by El DeBarge |
The song is an ode to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson announcer Ed McMahon. |
| 7 |
"Don't Wear Those Shoes" |
3:36 |
Style parody of The Kinks circa 1980s |
A plea by the singer to his wife not to not wear certain shoes which he can't stand. She can do all sorts of other really bad things to the singer instead, which he would consider not as bad as wearing those particular shoes. Principally styled around the Kinks' 1980s singles "Come Dancing" and "Father Christmas". |
| 8 |
"Toothless People" |
3:23 |
Parody of "Ruthless People" by Mick Jagger |
The song focuses around elderly people who are missing their teeth. |
| 9 |
"Good Enough for Now" |
3:03 |
Style parody of country love songs |
The song is about how the singer's lover, who, while not the best, will do for now. |
| 10 |
"Christmas at Ground Zero" |
3:09 |
Style parody of Phil Spector Christmas song |
Apocalyptic song set to a cheerful Yuletide tune. This song is a notable entry in Al's generally harmless musical output, as the disturbing lyrics caused this song to be banned from the radio. (But is still a staple of the Dr. Demento Show.) |
Personnel
Production
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
