Michael After Midnight: The Career of "Weird Al" Yankovic, Part 1 (The 80s)
A long time ago, my parents bought a Dr. Demento CD that compiled some of the most popular songs from his show to expose my brother and I to the world of comedy music. It had a variety of classics on there, such as “Fish Heads” and “Star Trekkin,” but the real draw of the CD was a little song called “Yoda.” That was my first ever exposure to the king of parodies himself, Weird Al Yankovic.
Weird Al is an anomaly among comedy musicians, as he has had a successful career spanning five decades at this point. Most novelty artists are lucky if they can succeed for a year or two, and this curly-haired goober is out here running from the 80s to the 2020s like it was the easiest thing in the world. And through it all, the guy has had the most normal, wholesome, unproblematic career of any artist ever. There’s no unsavory accusations, no scandals, no reveals he’s secretly a jerk… literally the worst things that can be said is that he made a couple of underperforming albums and he recorded a parody that caused a minor beef due to miscommunication. And when he’s not making music, the guy has dabbled in voice acting and even assisted other musicians with their own projects. Dude is a living legend.
For years now I’ve wanted to kind of do a look into his discography, talk about what I think of all his albums, give my thoughts on the quality of the songs… It’s no easy task, because as these are comedy songs explaining them just doesn’t hit the same as giving them a listen (which I recommend you do for all of these songs). But I’ve tried my best to give my thoughts and feelings on each albums, the parodies and originals, and how the whole thing comes together. It was interesting going through these and hearing songs I’d never actually heard before, finding hidden gems and, uh, some hidden turds as well. I think people tend to look at the 80s as Al’s golden age, but I’m not sure I agree; yes, it’s when he first became popular, but a lot of his early work you can feel he’s trying to figure out just what it is he wants to do. Thankfully, by the end of the decade, he had done just that, though not without a few bumps in the roads.
I’m not going to give the albums some kind of numerical score, because I don’t see the point, but I will be ranking them all at the end. I’ve also picked three of the best songs from each album, and they’re the ones I recommend giving a listen to the most, though some of these albums it’s very hard to pick just three. Grab your accordions, make yourself a Twinkie wiener sandwich, and get ready to see what I thought of Al’s 80s ouevre.
“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC
This is an album that is most interesting in hindsight. Listening through it, you can see the Weird Al we know and love today coming slowly into focus, but it never quite gets there. Everything on the album is just fine, it’s a solid debut but the writing isn’t as funny or sharp as Al would be later.
Still, like I said, you can see the true Al’s outline even if he’s rough around the edges. The parodies in particular are all very good if not nearly as clever as later works; “My Bologna,” “I Love Rocky Road,” and “Another One Rides the Bus” are all well done, though they’re a lot more accordion heavy and less concerned with sounding alike to what they’re spoofing. I do appreciate the silly sound effects Al slips in, though; a lot of armpit fart sounds, it’s silly stuff. I think the biggest harbinger of his future is the song “Stop Draggin’ My Car Around,” his Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks sendup that is somewhere in between an accordion cover and a spoof imitation.
The originals on this album are the real low point, as they are not indicative of his later work. I don’t think any of them really stand out as being awful or anything, but few of them are particularly inspired either. “Such a Groovy Guy” and “Mr. Frump in the Iron Lung” are the real stand out original tracks here, with the former being a well-aged anthem for “nice guys,” while the latter is genuinely one of the most laugh out loud funny instances of black comedy in Al’s discography. The issue is the other originals are just… meh. “Happy Birthday” and “Buckingham Blues” just aren’t really all too funny, and “Gotta Boogie” might be one of the worst songs in Al’s discography due to how juvenile and lowbrow it is. I mean, Al isn’t exactly some pretentious artist or anything, but a song about boogers just feels beneath him, y’know?
I see this album as growing pains, so it’s hard to be too harsh on it. There’s an idea of Weird Al here, it just isn’t fully formed quite yet.
Best Tracks
1. “My Bologna” – The original, the alpha parody. It has aged remarkably well all things considered, and might be one of the few parody songs Al has done that’s better than the original. I’d rather listen to a man sing about his love of crappy lunch meat than hear a guy sing about how he gets hot and bothered by underage girls.
2. “I Love Rocky Road” – The goofy sounds, the heavy accordion, Al’s vocals… This is a classic.
3. “Stop Draggin’ My Car Around” – I wasn’t kidding, this really feels like a harbinger of Al’s later work. For that reason, it earns the spotlight here, though I can also see why this isn’t one of his more well-known parodies.
“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC IN 3-D
This is where Al as we know him becomes fully formed. Obviously this isn’t his peak, but this is where Al truly became as weird as his name would imply.
While I say he didn’t peak here—I don’t think this album is all around amazing by any means—it does have what is arguably his best parody of all: “Eat It.” Even today, this holds up as some of his strongest work, which unfortunately means every other parody on the album is living in its shadow. “The Brady Bunch” and “King of Suede” are enjoyable enough, but they don’t really reach the highs of “Eat It,” but “I Lost on Jeopardy” does. Or, well, it comes very close, especially when you factor in its fantastic music video and the guest appearance of former Jeopardy host Don Pardo. “Theme from Rocky XIII” AKA “The Rye or the Kaiser” is also pretty solid, and is definitely leagues better than the other Rocky song parody he’d do later.
This is also the first ever time Al did a polka medley, combining popular songs together and playing them polka-style. It’s one of his best traditions, and while this is not even close to my favorite medley it is a pretty good foot forward. It’s honestly rather strange looking back at it now, as it doesn’t use contemporary songs and is instead big hits from the 60s and 70s. Still, he picked the right songs, and it’s hard to fault the thing that established a trend for not following the rules it would only set later.
I think where this album falters a bit is the originals. “Midnight Star” is exempt from my ire, as it’s an entertaining ode to tabloid magazines and I’m kind of fond of “Nature Trail to Hell,” a funny song about the absurd slasher slop that proliferated the 80s. But the B-52s pastiche “Mr. Popeil” is not particularly memorable, and “Buy Me a Condo” is genuinely a contender for Al’s worst song ever between its repetitive lyrics and the stereotypical accent Al puts on. It quite frankly drags the whole thing down, though not very far I will say.
This isn’t an awful album or anything, but it is an album almost totally overshadowed by one single song off of it. Even the other decent tracks aren’t really ones I see people bring up much, because they’re all living under the enormous shadow that “Eat It” casts. It’s just not balanced very well.
Best Tracks
1. “Eat It” – Obvious pick is obvious, but this is the obvious pick for a reason. It is still, to this day, one of his best parody songs, the song that made people really take notice as well as the peak of his food-obsessed lyricism. The music video kicks a lot of ass too. Just an all-around banger.
2. “I Lost on Jeopardy” – This is one really served well by its video, but thankfully it’s a lot of fun even without it. Again, it’s hardly close to “Eat It,” but it’s still arguably better than the song it’s spoofing.
3. “Nature Trail to Hell” – As someone who loves horror movies and is well aware of how much schlock the 80s pumped out, this song mocking those trends tickled my fancy.
DARE TO BE STUPID
This is one of the first Al-bums I listened to all the way through from start to finish, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fond of this one. That being said, putting my nostalgia aside, it’s kind of strange looking back at this and seeing how… weird this tracklist is. It’s very front loaded when it comes to classics, with three all-timers, a solid original, and a kind of mediocre Huey Lewis Parody. The second half is where the cracks start to show as while his cover of “George of the Jungle” is fun (but ultimately unremarkable) and “Slime Creatures from Outer Space” is an underrated gem, we then trip over one of the worst songs in his discograpghy: “Girls Just Want to Have Lunch.”
This was mandated by his label, and you can hear the contempt and irritation in every line of the song. As a work of spite, it’s pretty impressive, but judging it as a song it just isn’t pleasant to listen to. We thankfully swerve back into decent songs with his theme song to the somewhat obscure comedy Johnny Dangerously and the dated but amusing Elton John pastiche “Cable TV” before ending strong with “Hooked on Polkas,” his second ever medley and a decent enough one, though it isn’t one I often find myself revisiting. In my opinion Al didn’t really hit his stride with his medleys until the 90s, and the 80s ones—despite having tons of songs I love in them—just never really hit right for me.
This is a remarkably solid album, but I think it looks more impressive than it is. It has one single blemish that really isn’t that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but I also don’t think the second half of the album has anything truly impressive or stand out compared to the first half. It has incredibly high highs and only middling lows, so I still definitely recommend this one.
Best Tracks
1. “Dare to be Stupid” – When the band you’re parodying the style of is jealous they didn’t make the song first, you know you’ve done something great. A wonderful ode to absolute idiocy and a great riff on Devo, it’s perhaps one of the greatest title tracks ever made and one of Al’s most stellar original songs.
2. “Like a Surgeon” – The rare time when Al actually parodied something at the suggestion of the original artist, this is black comedy gold. It’s so good it truly makes you wonder why Madonna felt the need to assassinate Al after his big win.
3. “Yoda” – Another no-brainer. This is a parodic masterpiece, a beautiful summary of the Yoda plotline of The Empire Strikes Back with some cheeky humor tossed in. It’s also weirdly prophetic; they are making these movies until they’re old and gray.
THE COMPLEAT AL
Al’s first foray into film was not UHF. A few years earlier, he took part in this silly little mockumentary detailing his rise to fame and showcasing his biggest music videos. As mockumentaries weren’t really a big genre yet (This is Spinal Tap had only just released the previous year), a lot of people accepted some of the claims in this film at face value… at least, that’s what Wikipedia says. Who knows if it’s actually true.
As for the substance of the film, it’s basically just a humorous recounting of his early life and career with Al-style comedy painted on. If you like Al’s humor, you’ll enjoy this, especially if you love his 80s work and his personality back then. Al aficionados have no reason not to check it out either, because it is available for free on YouTube.
POLKA PARTY
This album has a reputation as being one of Al’s weakest, and… yeah, it’s hard to really deny it. This was a bit of a slump, though I think the reputation is really overblown. While I don’t think the parodies on this album are particularly good or memorable, the original songs tend to be fantastic—and some are easily Al’s best work of the 80s.
Let’s talk about those parodies. The album starts with “Living with a Hernia,” another Rocky song parody, and this one does not live up to the previous one whatsoever. “Here’s Johnny” is a horribly dated song and just isn’t particularly funny, “Toothless People” is likewise unfunny and unpleasant, and even the polka medley feels a bit lackluster—which is insane for an album called POLKA PARTY, and doubly crazy because all the songs in the medley individually are bangers. About the only semi-decent parody on the album is “Addicted to Spuds,” and even then I wouldn’t rank it among Al’s best work.
The originals and style parodies are where it’s at with this album. When the worst original is an amusing mediocre romance country ballad, you know you’re in for a treat. In fact, the album ends with what might be one of his best originals ever, the Christmas classic that is “Christmas at Ground Zero” (no, not that Ground Zero). I will say, though, that as much as I enjoyed the other originals and think they’re hidden gems, I’m not sure if I’d say they’re good enough to totally redeem the entire album. When the best parody song on the Parody Song Guy’s album is mid at best, it kind of deflates the whole thing a fair bit no matter how good the rest is. Hell, this is probably why these originals weren’t on my radar until writing this; the album’s poor reception hasn’t made it stick out enough for people to sing anything’s praises.
Al used this as a learning experience, that every career has its peaks and valleys. He managed to bounce back in an incredible way, so with that in mind and the passage of time I think it’s safe to say this album isn’t really that bad. It’s not good, mind you, but it does have a lot of value if you dig through it.
Best Tracks
1. “Christmas at Ground Zero” – This is unironically one of my favorite Christmas songs ever. It’s just beautifully bleak and terrifying, but you never really feel it because Al is singing this with sincere holly jolly cheerfulness. I’m pretty sure his label forced him to do a Christmas song, and if that really is the case then I really hope they regretted it sincerely. This is the definition of a diamond in the rough.
2. “One of Those Days” – Al is great with comedic juxtapositions, and this song is a prime example. Every chorus is filled to the brim with horrific, painful, and agonizing experiences Al is going through, and then it’s capped off with a mild annoyance he finds on an equal level. It’s not quite as funny black comedy as the song above, but this was a pleasant find on this album.
3. “Dog Eat Dog” – Who knew Al could do such a good David Byrne impression (at least of his singing mannerisms)? It’s a fun little song about the ‘joys’ of office life in the style of Talking Heads. It’s hard not to like it, even if I don’t think this is his best or funniest original work. This is definitely a case where the delivery and how good Al is at replicating an artist’s style really elevates material that might be a bit trite otherwise.
EVEN WORSE
It is genuinely insane how good this album is. You’d think after the underperformance of the previous album it might be a sign Al was just a novelty who would fade into obscurity like so many acts before him, but surprise! Here comes his absolute best work of the 80s! This album has so many gems, both in terms of parody and original work.
The album comes out swinging, delivering his second iconic MJ parody “Fat,” and while “Stuck in the Closet with Vanna White” is a bit dated both in the subject of the song and the glam rock style it’s still not so bad and is then immediately followed up with “(This Song is Just) Six Words Long,” an amusing George Harrison parody. After that, the album is almost all gas, no brakes. The parodies are a lot of fun, the originals are solid, and even the weaker tracks like “Velvet Elvis” are enjoyable enough.
I think if I have any criticism, it’s that the parodies here aren’t quite as memorable as stuff like “Eat It” or “Yoda,” with the exception of “Fat.” As much as I love “I Think I’m a Clone Now” and “Lasagna,” those aren’t exactly the first things that come to mind when thinking of Al’s best parodies (even if the former song is way better than the song it’s spoofing). I think this is made up for by the fact that the original songs on this album are so good, especially the black comedy ones; “Melanie” and “The Good Old Days” really show that mild edginess can be worth a few chuckles if delivered right.
This may not be the album that defined Al, but it definitely is the one that cemented his legacy. This guy wasn’t just going to be a one-off gag act, oh no! He was going the distance!
Best Tracks
1. “You Make Me” – Weird Al and Oingo Boingo… what a match made in heaven. This stylistic riff on “Grey Matter” is a fun little wacky ode to the insane things love will drive a man to do. And of course, as this isn’t “Normal Al” Yankovic, I do mean insane.
2. “The Good Old Days” – A soft rock ditty that starts out completely normal, and then it takes a shocking swerve as it’s revealed the narrator is a complete psychopath. This and “Melanie” are some of his best black comedy, but I think this one has the edge due to being a sendup of James Taylor’s soft rock, which accentuates the subject matter with the ironic juxtaposition of the music with the lyrics.
3. “Fat” – I’d be remiss to not put this on here, but if I’m being honest, this one has never been one of my favorites. Now, that being said, the music video is easily one of Al’s best, and that might be where the disconnect comes from; this song just doesn’t hit the same when you can’t see Al gallivanting about in a fat suit. Still, it’s a great parody either way.
PETER & THE WOLF
What’s this? You didn’t know about this one? It’s not surprising; this is rare, long out of print, and not one of the albums included in Al’s canon discography. Still, do you think I’m just going to not talk about the time Weird Al collaborated with Wendy Carlos?
The album is half a comical adaptation of “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokofiev and half a comedic sequel to Camille Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of Animals.” Al narrates the story with funny updates over Carlos’ arrangements in the former, and reads off silly spoken word poetry about odd life forms in the latter before Carlos kicks in with some music. It’s really fun, simple stuff.
By all accounts Carlos loved this project, saying "the project was a chance for some musical fun and tomfoolery, working with a bright, witty collaborator, before getting back to more adventurous tuning and timbre projects." And it’s hard not to love it too; it’s one of the most out there collaborations of all time, and yet it somehow works. It’s a shame it’s not readily available for listening, because this is an incredibly charming and exceedingly well made little comedy album.
UHF
Al wrapped up his run in the 80s with his first (and sadly only) starring role. While Even Worse is his best album of the 80s and a better achievement within the context of his career, I think this movie might be his best work of that decade. It is pretty much everything Al was about in the 80s, from off the wall humor to silly parodies, wrapped up in a cinematic package… and this right here is probably precisely why it was doomed to being a cult classic.
Look, I love this film and have since I was a kid, but it is a Weird Al movie through and through. It can have a fantastically hammy villain portrayal from Kevin McCarthy and a young, prime Michael Richards and some of the zaniest gags you could possibly imagine, it was still a celebrity vehicle for a guy who sang food-themed parodies of Michael Jackson songs. It was never going to be the easiest sell, so it bombing is not a shock. If you don’t vibe with Al’s humor, you’re not gonna vibe with this, and you might even find this painful. But if you’re an Al guy (like me) you are in for one heck of a good time.
And of course, an Al movie would not be an Al movie at all without a soundtrack from the man himself, and thankfully it does deliver for the most part! The parodies on here are pretty uniformly fantastic; “Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies” is a contender for one of his best parodies of the 80s, and “Spam” is likewise a fantastic spoof of R.E.M. that pays tribute to the titular canned meat. While those two are pretty handily the best parodies on the album, the lesser known ones are fun as well; his sendup of Fine Young Cannibals, “She Drives Like Crazy,” is a particularly fun number where Al does some impressively goofy voices, while “Isle Thing” is a Tone Loc parody about Gilligan’s Isle that is at any rate very interesting. I’ve always found it to be one of the most obscure songs in his discography, one that I rarely see mentioned and that I hadn’t heard of for years due to its odd exclusion from The TV Album. It’s the earliest example of Al parodying rap music, and so it does lack the care and skill he’d display much later in his career when spoofing rap, but it’s an interesting starting point at any rate.
“Hot Rocks Polka” is perhaps one of the most interesting medleys he’s ever done, because instead of throwing a bunch of contemporary hits together he exclusively sings Rolling Stones songs. It’s a risky thing only doing a single artist for a medley, as it can come off as lazy and repetitive with a lack of variety, but thankfully he was using music from a band with a diverse roster of songs ripe for riffing on. Still not one of my most favorite polkas, but I definitely respect its vision and think it’s worth checking out, especially if you like the Stones.
Then we have the original songs, and they’re pretty solid as well! In particular, the film’s title track is a stylistic spoof of Jagger and Jackson’s “State of Shock” with a fantastic music video where Al lampoons several contemporary artists interspersed with clips of the movie; it’s an absolute blast, though I think how much you enjoy it hinges on how you feel about the movie itself. “Generic Blues” is honestly pretty amazing, and goes unnecessarily hard; it frankly sounds more like his 90s material than his 80s stuff. “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” is a lot of fun, a silly little ode to ridiculous roadside attractions, and “Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars” is as delightfully absurd as its title is long. But of course, everything here pales in comparison to Al’s magnum opus, “Let Me Be Your Hog.” A true masterpiece of songwriting and lyricism, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you may even need to use the bathroom. It’s simply divine.
Oh, and some of the skits from the movie are on the album too. Have you ever wanted to listen to “Spatula City” while you’re on the train? Well, you can! Lucky you!
This is a pretty impressive album to end the 80s on, but it’s a shame the movie didn’t do well because it made the album not do so hot. A lot of these songs aren’t really discussed when people bring up Al’s classic work, and it’s truly a tragedy because there’s some really good work here.
Best Tracks
0. “Let Me Be Your Hog” – A true masterpiece, it transcends even normal numbering schemes.
1. “UHF” – Al really went all out for the title track, and it’s hard to deny the results.
2. “Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies” – Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher of Dire Straits played guitar and synth respectively on this song, meaning it’s a parody so good the original band wanted to be part of it.
3. “Generic Blues” – It’s exactly what it says it is: A generic blues song with all of the tropes of the genre cranked up to absurd extremes.
And now that we’ve looked at all of his albums, here’s how I’d rank them:
7. Polka Party
Perhaps the least shocking choice I could make, but I’m sorry, this album just really isn’t all that good. It has its gems but it is by and large a very tired album with some of the most half-baked parodies of Al’s career.
6. “Weird Al” Yankovic
Al’s debut is not really exceptionally weak, but it isn’t exceptionally impressive outside of a few tracks. It feels more like a solid rough draft for his career than an actual full-fledged Weird Al experience.
5. “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D
This album is genuinely overshadowed by “Eat It.” I don’t think this album would be remembered well at all if it didn’t have that song on it, especially since it also contains one of the single worst songs Al ever did.
4. Peter and the Wolf
It’s not canonically part of Al’s discography, but did you really think I wasn’t going to rank the collab between Weird Al and Wendy Carlos? Come on now.
3. UHF
The soundtrack for the motion picture event of the 80s is surprisingly solid work, with some of Al’s most interesting originals and fun parodies that have sadly languished in obscurity due to the movie’s failure.
2. Dare to be Stupid
While the album is extremely front loaded with the good stuff, what a front load it is! There are three all-timers in the first half of the album, which is more than enough to rocket it to second place.
1. Even Worse
This is 80s Al at peak performance. The parodies range from solid to stellar, the original songs are almost uniformly great, and everything we’d come to expect from the guy is truly cemented here. This is “Weird Al” Yankovic fully formed.
It would be a few years after the 80s before Al released anything again, but the 90s would be quite an interesting time for Al… but that’s for another day.
I want to tell you a short story that happened recently. I was feeling pretty hopeless, things were happening in my life that nobody ever wants to go through, I was crying, and generally miserable. Then I put this song on, hurt feelings by the Flight of the Conchords. It made me laugh, and everything started to feel better as I listened to it over and over again.
Comedy music has a power that no…
