Polka Party!
Template:Short description Template:For Template:For Template:Good article {{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |Template:Short description|noreplace}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Dare to Be Stupid1985Even Worse1988studioPolka Party!Weird-Al-Yankovic-Polka-Party.jpg"Weird Al" YankovicOctober 21, 1986April 22 – September 1, 1986Santa Monica Sound Recorders, Santa Monica* Comedy
- parody34:07* Rock 'n Roll
- Scotti BrothersRick Derringerx|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}}
Polka Party! is the fourth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on October 21, 1986. The album was produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between April and September 1986,<ref name="recordingdates" /> the album was Yankovic's follow-up to his successful 1985 release, Dare to Be Stupid. The album's lead single, "Living With a Hernia", failed to chart.
The music on Polka Party! is built around parodies and pastiches of pop and rock music of the mid-1980s, featuring direct parodies of James Brown, Mick Jagger, El DeBarge and Robert Palmer. The album also features many "style parodies", or musical imitations that come close to, but do not copy, existing artists. These style parodies include imitations of specific artists like Talking Heads, as well as imitations of various musical genres like country music.
Peaking at No. 177 on the Billboard 200, Polka Party! was met with mixed-to-negative reviews and was considered a commercial and critical failure. Despite this, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1988. 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).
ProductionEdit
RecordingEdit
Yankovic entered the recording studio in April 1986 to begin the sessions to his follow-up to 1985's Dare to Be Stupid.<ref name="recordingdates"/> To produce the album, Yankovic brought in former McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer, who had also produced Yankovic's previous albums.<ref name="ppliner">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Backing Yankovic were Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, Steve Jay on bass, and Jim West on guitar.<ref name="ppliner"/> The album was recorded in roughly three sessions. The first session took place between April 22 and 23, and yielded four originals: "Don't Wear Those Shoes", "One of Those Days", "Dog Eat Dog", and "Christmas at Ground Zero". The second session, which spanned August 4–5, produced three parodies: "Living with a Hernia", "Addicted to Spuds", and "Here's Johnny". The final session, which lasted from August 29 to September 1, produced the parody "Toothless People", an original song named "Good Enough for Now", and the album's titular polka medley.<ref name="recordingdates"/> Thematically, Yankovic described the record as "not a whole lot different than" the other albums he had recorded, calling the process "even a bit formulaic".<ref name=houstonchron/>
OriginalsEdit
On April 22, 1986, Yankovic began recording three new original songs for his next album: "Don't Wear Those Shoes", "One of Those Days", and "Dog Eat Dog".<ref name="recordingdates">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Although "Don't Wear Those Shoes" is an original composition, Yankovic admitted that the intro was inspired by the style of The Kinks.<ref name="kinks">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lyrically, the song is a plea by the singer to his wife not to not wear certain shoes which he cannot stand.<ref name=ppliner/> "One of Those Days" is a song detailing 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.<ref name=ppliner/>
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"Dog Eat Dog" is a style parody of Talking Heads. Described as a "tongue-in-cheek look at office life", the song was inspired by Yankovic's past experience of working in the mailroom and traffic department at the Westwood One radio station.<ref name="praitb"/> He noted, "At first I thought [the job] was kinda cool that I had a phone and a desk and a little cubicle to call my own, but after a while I felt like my soul had been sucked out of me."<ref name="praitb">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> The song features a line directly parodying the Talking Heads song "Once In a Lifetime": "Sometimes I tell myself, this is not my beautiful stapler/Sometimes I tell myself, this is not my beautiful chair!" This mirrors a similar line in the Talking Heads song: "You may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful house/You may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful wife".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On April 23, Yankovic recorded "Christmas at Ground Zero".<ref name="recordingdates"/> The song, "a cheery little tune about death, destruction and the end of the world" was the result of Scotti Brothers Records' insistence that Yankovic release a Christmas record.<ref name="praitb"/> After Yankovic presented the song to his label, they relented, because it was "a little different from what they were expecting."<ref name="praitb"/> After the song's release, some radio stations banned the record, a move that Yankovic attributes to "most people [not wanting] to hear about nuclear annihilation during the holiday season."<ref name="praitb"/> Following 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, the disturbing lyrics caused this song to be banned largely from radio.<ref name="pizek">Template:Cite news Retrieved April 24, 2013.</ref><ref name="fisher">Template:Cite news</ref> Yankovic wanted the song to receive a video, but due to budget reasons, his label did not agree. Yankovic, however, directed one himself which was mostly made up of stock footage, with a live action finale that was filmed in a run-down part of the Bronx, New York that "looked like a bomb had fallen on it."<ref name="pizek"/><ref name="DVD">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>
The final original that was recorded was "Good Enough for Now", a country music pastiche about how the singer's lover, while not the best, will do for now.<ref name="recordingdates"/><ref name=ppliner/><ref name ="daily"/>
Parodies and polkaEdit
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On August 4, Yankovic began recording parodies starting with "Living with a Hernia".<ref name="recordingdates"/> The song, a spoof of "Living in America" by James Brown—which was also the theme to the 1985 film Rocky IV—is about hernias.<ref name=ppliner/><ref name="praitb"/> When it came time to pick a song to parody as the lead single for Polka Party! Scotti Brothers Records "had some very strong ideas" and wished to have Yankovic parody a musician who was signed on the same label. After "Living in America" became a hit, the record label insisted that Yankovic parody the song, to which Yankovic obliged.<ref>Rabin and Yankovic, p. 77</ref> In order to accurately write the song, Yankovic researched the various types of hernias. Yankovic noted that "it was a real thrill to do James Brown. I'm a total non-dancer, never went to any dances in high school, but if I analytically dissect a dance routine I can figure it out."<ref name="praitb"/> A choreographer named Chester Whitmore was hired to accurately create the dance scenes featured in the video, which was shot on the concert set actually used in the movie Rocky IV.<ref name="praitb"/> The second parody recorded was "Addicted to Spuds", a pastiche of "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer, about a man's obsession for potatoes and potato-based dishes.<ref name="recordingdates"/><ref name=ppliner/> A music video for the song was never made because there was a strict budget for videos for the album, and Yankovic felt that the video would be "one joke" and not really worth its own video. A parody of Palmer's video, however, was later inserted into Al's "UHF" video.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On August 5, Yankovic recorded "Here's Johnny", a parody of "Who's Johnny" by El DeBarge.<ref name="recordingdates"/> The song, a loving ode to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson announcer Ed McMahon, features John Roarke of the television series Fridays fame doing an impression of McMahon's voice.<ref name="praitb"/><ref name="Players">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Yankovic, Peter Wolf, the man who wrote "Who's Johnny", enjoyed the parody idea so much that he personally brought into the studio the floppy disc that contained the song's programmed synthesizer parts.<ref name=houstonchron>Template:Cite news Template:Subscription required</ref> The final parody recorded for the album was "Toothless People", a play on Mick Jagger's "Ruthless People", which was recorded on August 29, 1986. The song, about elderly people who are missing their teeth, was written after Yankovic heard it would be the theme to the 1986 film Ruthless People. Assuming the song would be a hit, Yankovic requested and received permission from Jagger to record a parody version. Jagger's song, however, was never a hit, but because Jagger had "approved" the parody, he decided that failing to produce it would be an "insult" to the artist.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The album's polka medley, the titular "Polka Party!", was recorded on the same day as "Here's Johnny".<ref name="recordingdates"/> This was Yankovic's third polka medley, and his only medley to bear the same name as an album. Like his other medleys, the song is a conglomeration of then-popular songs in music.<ref name=parodies>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReceptionEdit
PromotionEdit
To promote the album's release, Scotti Brothers Records purchased full-page ads in Billboard magazine that advertised the release as Yankovic's "biggest bash yet".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Unlike previous albums, Yankovic did not undertake a tour to promote Polka Party! Instead, he opened for the American rock band the Monkees; Yankovic later joked that the Monkees merely "closed" for him.<ref name="praitb"/> Yankovic explained that while it "was a fun tour" and that the crowds were very enthusiastic, the tension between the Monkees was obvious; on his website, he wrote that while the band members "are all terrific people individually", they "didn't seem to get along all that great when they weren't on stage."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Critical responseEdit
Polka Party! received mixed to negative reviews from critics. AllMusic reviewer Eugene Chadbourne gave the album three stars and wrote that "just about anyone could feel let down by this album."<ref name="allmusic"/> Chadbourne was largely critical of the parody choices, noting that many of the original versions would be forgotten in "fifteen years".<ref name="allmusic"/> Christopher Thelen from The Daily Vault gave Polka Party! an F and described it as an album that "seemed like it could well have been the 'last call' for Yankovic."<ref name ="daily"/> Thelen heavily criticized the record, writing that both the parodies and originals were not good and that "Yankovic [was] going through the motions".<ref name ="daily"/> Rolling Stone awarded the album three-and-a-half stars, tying it with the 1992 album Off the Deep End and the 1999 release Running with Scissors as Yankovic's best-rated album.<ref name ="rolling stone book"/> Although it was not a critical success, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1987,<ref name="awards">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but lost to Bill Cosby's Those of You with or Without Children, You'll Understand.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Despite the album's lackluster reception, many of the songs on the album, such as "Dog Eat Dog", "Addicted to Spuds", and "Christmas at Ground Zero", went on to become fan favorites and live staples.<ref name="praitb"/><ref name="tdet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="pht">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="setlist4"/> Two of the album's tracks, "Living with a Hernia" and "Addicted to Spuds", appeared on Yankovic's first greatest hits album (1988),<ref name="great1liner">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> "Christmas at Ground Zero" appeared on the second volume (1994).<ref name="great2liner">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> In addition, the 1994 box set Permanent Record: Al in the Box contained five of the album's songs: "Addicted to Spuds", "Dog Eat Dog", "Here's Johnny", "Living with a Hernia", and "Christmas at Ground Zero".<ref name="praitb"/> Only "Dog Eat Dog", however, appeared on Yankovic's 2009 Essential collection, although the 3.0 version contained "Living with a Hernia".<ref name="essentialliner">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref><ref name="essentialliner2">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>
Commercial performanceEdit
Polka Party! was released October 21, 1986.<ref name="awards"/> After it was released, the album peaked at No. 177 on the Billboard 200.<ref name="awards"/> Compared to Yankovic's previous albums—Dare to Be Stupid peaked at No. 50 and In 3-D peaked at No. 17<ref name="awards"/>—Polka Party! was considered a commercial disappointment for the comedian. The album was the lowest-charting studio album released by Yankovic<ref name="awards"/> and is one of his few studio albums not to be certified either Gold or Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).<ref name="awards"/> The others include the soundtrack to his film UHF (1989) and Poodle Hat (2003).<ref name="awards"/>
Yankovic was dismayed by the album's lackluster reception. He noted that he "thought it was the end of [his] career".<ref name="praitb"/> Yankovic explained that "I figured I'd peaked with 'Eat It' and 'Like a Surgeon' and now people were slowly forgetting about me and I was well on my way to obscurity."<ref name="praitb"/> However, Yankovic's next album, Even Worse, would resurrect his career and become his best-selling album at the time; the experience led Yankovic to realize that "careers have peaks and valleys, and whenever I go through the rough times, another peak might be right around the corner."<ref name="praitb"/>
Track listingEdit
Template:Track listing Template:Track listing
PersonnelEdit
Credits adapted from LP liner notes.<ref name="ppliner"/>
Template:Div col Band members
- "Weird Al" Yankovic – lead and background vocals, accordion, keyboards, glockenspiel
- Jim West – guitars, background vocals
- Steve Jay – bass guitar, banjo, background vocals
- Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz – drums, percussion
Additional musicians
- Pat Regan – synthesizers
- Rick Derringer – guitars
- Lisa Popeil – background vocals
- The Waters Sisters – background vocals
- Warren Luening – trumpet
- Bill Anderson – tenor saxophone
- Gary Herbig – baritone saxophone
- Joel Peskin – clarinet
- Tommy Johnson – tuba
- Jim Cox – pedal steel synth
- Dennis Fetchet – fiddle
- Sonny Burke – piano
- John Roarke – voice of Ed McMahon
Technical
- Rick Derringer – producer
- "Weird Al" Yankovic – arranger
- Tony Papa – engineer, mixing
- Jamey Dell – assistant engineer
- Lane/Donald – art direction
- Dennis Keeley – cover pictures
Charts and certificationsEdit
ChartsEdit
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200<ref name="awards"/> | 177 |