Polka Party!

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For the 1998 Grammy-nominated album by Brave Combo, see Polka Party with Brave Combo: Live and Wild!.
Polka Party!
Studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Released October 21, 1986
Recorded April–September 1986
Genre Comedy, funk, disco, new wave, hard rock, heavy metal, polka, bluegrass, country, Christmas carol
Length 34:07
Label Scotti Brothers
Producer Rick Derringer
"Weird Al" Yankovic chronology
Dare to Be Stupid
(1985)		 Polka Party!
(1986)		 Even Worse
(1988)
Singles from Polka Party!
  1. "Living with a Hernia"
    Released: October 21, 1986
  2. "Christmas at Ground Zero"
    Released: November 1986

Polka Party! is the fourth studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1986. The album is the third of Yankovic's to be produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. The musical styles on Polka Party! are built around pastiches of pop and rock music in 1986, featuring parodies of James Brown, Mick Jagger, El DeBarge, and Robert Palmer.

Polka Party! 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.

Peaking at only number 177 on the Billboard 200, Polka Party! was met with mixed reviews and was considered a commercial and critical failure. Despite this, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1986.

Contents

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critical response

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 3/5 stars[1]
Rolling Stone Record Guide 3.5/5 stars[2]
The Daily Vault (F)[3]

Polka Party! has received mixed to negative reviews. AllMusic reviewer Eugene Chadbourne awarded the album three stars, and wrote that "just about anyone could feel let down by this album."[1] Christopher Thelen from The Daily Vault described Polka Party! as an album that "seemed like it could well have been the "last call" for Yankovic."[3] Despite the album's lackluster critical evaluations, many of the songs on the album, such as "Dog Eat Dog," went on to become fan favorites and live staples.[4][5] Two of the albums tracks, "Living with a Hernia" and "Addicted to Spuds," appeared on Yankovic's first greatest hits album, "Christmas at Ground Zero" appeared on the second volume. In addition, the box set "Permanent Record: Al in the Box" contained five of the album's songs. Only "Dog Eat Dog," however, appeared on Yankovic's 2009 Essential collection, although the 3.0 version contained "Living with a Hernia."

Despite the negative reception, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1987,[6] but lost to Bill Cosby's Those of You With or Without Children, You'll Understand.

[edit] Commercial performance

Polka Party! was released October 21, 1986.[6] A month after it was released, the album peaked at number 177 on the Billboard 200.[6] Compared to Yankovic's previous albums - Dare to Be Stupid peaked at number 50[7] and In 3-D peaked at number 17[7] - Polka Party was a major commercial disappointment for the comedian. The album holds the dubious honor of being the lowest charting studio album released by Yankovic.[6]

Polka Party is one of Yankovic's few studio albums not to be certified either Gold or Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[6] The others include the soundtrack to his film UHF (1989) and Poodle Hat (2003).[6] Due to low sales the album was demoted to a budget release along with various other Yankovic albums in August 2009.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Side 1

  1. "Living with a Hernia" (orig. Dan Hartman, Charlie Midnight, arr. "Weird Al" Yankovic) – 3:20
  2. "Dog Eat Dog" (Yankovic) – 3:42
    • Style parody of Talking Heads;[8] 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. Parts of the song also resemble "And She Was" and "Stay Up Late."
  3. "Addicted to Spuds" (orig. Robert Palmer, arr. Yankovic) – 3:50
  4. "One of Those Days" (Yankovic) – 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!" (Polka medley, arr. Yankovic) – 3:15

[edit] Side 2

  1. "Here's Johnny" (orig. Peter Wolf, Ina Wolf, arr. Yankovic) – 3:24
  2. "Don't Wear Those Shoes" (Yankovic) – 3:36
    • Original, although the intro is in the style of The Kinks;[9] a plea by the singer to his wife not to not wear certain shoes which he can't stand. Principally styled around the Kinks' 1980s singles "Come Dancing" and "Father Christmas".
  3. "Toothless People" (orig. Daryl Hall, Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, arr. Yankovic) – 3:23
  4. "Good Enough for Now" (Yankovic) – 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.
  5. "Christmas at Ground Zero" (Yankovic) – 3:09
    • Style parody of Christmas carols; Apocalyptic song set to a cheerful Yuletide tune. This song is a notable entry in Al's ordinarily harmless musical output, as the disturbing lyrics caused this song to be banned at certain radio stations in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, when the general term "ground zero" was co-opted as a proper name for the World Trade Center site where two of those attacks took place.

[edit] Credits and personnel

Band members and production[10]
Other personnel[10]

[edit] Charts and certifications

[edit] Charts

Chart Peak
position
US Billboard 200[6] 177

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Chadbourne, Eugene. "Polka Party! - Weird Al Yankovic". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r82656/review. Retrieved 21 April 2011. 
  2. ^ Brackett, Nathan; Christian Hoard (2004). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 893. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. 
  3. ^ a b Thelen, Christopher (2 Sept. 2001). "Polka Party!". Daily Vault. http://dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=1994. Retrieved 21 April 2011. 
  4. ^ Yankovic, Alfred M. (2003). "The Deep End Tour". The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site. http://www.weirdal.com/otdetour.htm. Retrieved 23 April 2011. 
  5. ^ Yankovic, Alfred M. (2003). "Poodle Hat Tour 2003/2004". The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site. http://www.weirdal.com/phtour.htm. Retrieved 23 April 2011. 
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Yankovic, Alfred M. (2003). "Awards". The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site. http://www.weirdal.com/awards.htm. Retrieved 17 April 2011. 
  7. ^ a b "The Visualizer - "Weird Al" Yankovic". Billboard. 
  8. ^ a b Hansen, Barret (1994). Album notes for Permanent Record: Al in the Box by "Weird Al" Yankovic [liner]. California, USA: Scotti Brothers Records.
  9. ^ Yankovic, Alfred M. (December 1999). ""Ask Al" Q&As for December, 1999". The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site. http://www.weirdal.com/aaarchive.htm#1299. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
  10. ^ a b "The Players". Weirdal.com. http://www.weirdal.com/players.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-26. 
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