Weird Al Yankovic - Polka Party! Audio CD
A fair review of the Weird Al Yankovic "Polka Party!" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all
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Band: Weird Al Yankovic
Title: Polka Party!
Rating: 
Release Date: 1991-03-12
Media: Audio CD
Tracks: 1: Living With a Hernia 2: Dog Eat Dog 3: Addicted to Spuds 4: One of Those Days 5: Polka Party 6: Here's Johnny 7: Don't Wear Those Shoes 8: Toothless People 9: Good Enough for Now 10: Christmas at Ground Zero
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Something's missing here...
I am an big fan of Al, I've had the box set since I was 12 and most of his albums on cassette. Aside from the classic parodies, this album is missing Al's trademark wackiness and energy on the originals. As I've been updating my collection to CD I finally got around to buying a used copy of "Polka Party" here on Amazon and was disappointed.
The parodies are some of the classics like "Addicted to Spuds" and "Living with a Hernia", etc. that have been part of "Best of" albums, but the original songs are not up to snuff.
-"Don't Wear Those Shoes": is a weak version of "One More Minute" from Dare to Be Stupid, with a lot of "You can. . . " instead of "I'd rather. . . ".
-"One of Those Days": is a sad attempt at describing bad/wacky stuff happening as if it's normal everyday troubles, that was done much better in the song "Generic Blues" off of UHF.
-"Good Enough For Now": is like "Since You've Been Gone" from Bad Hair Day, but instead of revealing the joke that he doesn't actually like the girl at the end, it starts from the beginning.
The only exception to my critique of the original songs could be "Christmas At Ground Zero", but just as a personal preference I think "The Night Santa Went Crazy" from Bad Hair Day is a much better Christmas themed song.
Overall I wouldn't recommend this album, even to fans of Al, b/c you can get the good songs on "Best of" albums anyway.
It's hilarious and that's all.
It's hilarious and creative, and what should we ask for more? Buy this album and you'll find it's worth that money. Though being the lowest selling album of Weird Al to date, this album has all the stuff that a Weird album should has - song parodies like Living With A Hernia, Addicted to Spuds and Toothless People; style parodies like Dog Eat Dog (which is definitely a style parody of Talking Head's Once In A Lifetime); and, most of all, the trademark polka medley.
Weird Al at his best
His Living with a Hernia, Addicted to Spuds, Dog eat Dog and my favorite is Toothless People. This is such a wonderful and diverse selection of the music that has made Weird Al great. If you love Weird Al, this is a must.
The first of Many
I will look forward to buying more CDs like this. This Wierd Al CD is great, the parodies brings a nostalgic memory of times when it came out on Tape. It came promptly and was in outstanding condition.
Polka 'til you puke.
It didn't sell as well as his previous albums, because none of the songs received much radio airplay. This was "Weird Al"'s fourth album. The album features four parodies of then recent hits, five original songs and one polka medley of recent hit songs. The parodies of the songs "Living in America", "Addicted to Love" and "Who's Johnny" are quite good. I don't really care much for the parody of "Ruthless People", possibly because I barely remember the song being parodied. The original songs are all good, including the Talking Heads style song "Dog Eat Dog". But the best song on the album is "Christmas at Ground Zero". This song has gone on to be somewhat of a Christmas perennial, receiving airplay every Christmas season. A solid album by the Weird One.
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You can see a complete list of all Weird Al Yankovic discography, or go back to the Weird Al Yankovic tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.