Editing Polka Party! (section)

==Production==
===Recording===
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 [[The McCoys|McCoys]] guitarist [[Rick Derringer]], who had also produced Yankovic's previous albums.<ref name="ppliner">{{cite AV media notes |title=Polka Party! |others="Weird Al" Yankovic |year=1986 |type=LP liner notes |publisher=[[Scotti Brothers Records]] |id=FZ 40520}}</ref> Backing Yankovic were [[Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz]] on drums, [[Steve Jay]] on bass, and [[Jim West (guitarist)|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/>

===Originals===
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">{{Cite web| url = http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/recording-dates/ | title = Recording Dates | access-date = 7 September 2015 | last = Yankovic | first = Alfred M. | author-link = "Weird Al" Yankovic |date=December 2007 | work = The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site}}</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">{{cite web| url= http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/ask-al/#1299| title = 'Ask Al' Q&As for December, 1999| access-date = June 30, 2010| last= Yankovic| first = Alfred M.| author-link = "Weird Al" Yankovic|date=December 1999| work = The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site}}</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/>
[[File:Talking Heads band1.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Yankovic's song "Dog Eat Dog" served as a style parody of [[Talking Heads]] (pictured).|250px]]

{{Listen|filename=Dog Eat Dog Weird Al.ogg|title="Dog Eat Dog" (sample)|description="Dog Eat Dog", from Yankovic's 1986 album ''Polka Party!''. The sample illustrates the stylistic similarities between the song and the music of [[Talking Heads]].|format=[[Ogg]]}}

"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 (1976–2011)|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">{{cite AV media notes|title = Permanent Record: Al in the Box|others = [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]|year = 1994|url = http://dmdb.org/al/booklet.html|first = Barret|last = Hansen|author-link = Dr. Demento|type = liner|publisher = [[Scotti Brothers Records]]|location = [[California]], [[United States]]}}</ref> The song features a line directly parodying the Talking Heads song "[[Once in a Lifetime (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>{{cite web|title='Weird Al' Yankovic's Dog Eat Dog Sample of Talking Head's Once in a Lifetime|url=http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/12420/%22Weird%20Al%22%20Yankovic-Dog%20Eat%20Dog_Talking%20Heads-Once%20in%20a%20Lifetime/|publisher=[[WhoSampled]]|access-date=April 24, 2013}}</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">{{cite news|last=Pizke|first=Jeff|title=Season's Beatings |newspaper=[[Daily Herald (Arlington Heights)|Daily Herald]]|publisher=Paddock Publications|date=December 4, 2008}} Retrieved April 24, 2013.</ref><ref name="fisher">{{cite news|last=Fischer|first=Marc|title=On All-Christmas-Song Stations, Little is Sacred|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/23/AR2005122300303.html|access-date=April 24, 2013|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=December 25, 2005}}</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">{{cite AV media notes |title= "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection |orig-year= 2003 |others= Jay Levey, "Weird Al" Yankoviv |publisher= Volcano Entertainment |id= 82876-53727-9 |year= 2003}}</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 polka===
{{Listen|filename=Living With a Hernia.ogg|title="Living with a Hernia" (sample)|description="Living with a Hernia", from Yankovic's 1986 album ''Polka Party!''. The sample illustrates Yankovic's parody, including the musical re-creation of the original song.|format=[[Ogg]]}}

[[File:James-Brown 1973.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The album's lead parody, "Living with a Hernia", is a parody of [[James Brown]]'s (''pictured'') single "[[Living in America (James Brown song)|Living in America]]".|250px]]
On August 4, Yankovic began recording parodies starting with "Living with a Hernia".<ref name="recordingdates"/> The song, a spoof of "[[Living in America (James Brown song)|Living in America]]" by [[James Brown]]—which was also the theme to the 1985 film ''[[Rocky IV]]''—is about [[hernia]]s.<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 (song)|Addicted to Love]]" by [[Robert Palmer]], about a man's [[Fixation (psychology)|obsession]] for [[potato]]es 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>{{cite web|last=Yankovic|first=Alfred M.|title='Ask Al' Q&As for April, 1999|url=http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/ask-al/#0499|work=The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site|access-date=April 24, 2013|date=April 1999}}</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 (TV series)|Fridays]]'' fame doing an impression of McMahon's voice.<ref name="praitb"/><ref name="Players">{{cite web |url=https://www.weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/players/ |title=Players |website=[["Weird Al" Yankovic]] |access-date=January 19, 2023}}</ref> According to Yankovic, [[Peter Wolf (producer)|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>{{cite news|last=Graff|first=Gary|title=A Few Words With... Weird Al Yankovic|url=http://docs.newsbank.com/s/InfoWeb/aggdocs/NewsBank/0ED7ACC1043C20E2/0F8479522BD09CA1?s_lang=en-US|access-date=April 24, 2013|newspaper=[[Houston Chronicle]]|publisher=[[Hearst Corporation]]|date=December 28, 1986}} {{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>{{cite web|title=FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions|url=http://www.al-oholicsanonymous.com/faq/index.html#toothless|publisher=Al-oholics.com|access-date=April 24, 2013|year=1997}}</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>{{cite web|last=Yankovic|first=Alfred M.|title=Parodies & Polkas|url=http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/parodies-polka/|work=The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site|access-date=April 24, 2013}}</ref>