Yankovic, "Weird Al" - The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic
2009, Sony
Disc One:
1. Another One Rides the Bus
2. Polkas on 45
3. Eat It
4. I Lost on Jeopardy
5. Yoda
6. One More Minute
7. Like a Surgeon
8. Dare to be Stupid
9. Dog Eat Dog
10. Lasagna
11. Melanie
12. Fat
13. UHF
14. The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota
15. Trigger Happy
16. Smells Like Nirvana
17. You Don't Love Me Anymore
18. Bedrock Anthem
19. Frank's 2000" TV
20. Jurassic Park
Disc Two:
1. Since You've Been Gone
2. Amish Paradise
3. Gump
4. Everything You Know is Wrong
5. The Night Santa Went Crazy
6. Your Horoscope For Today
7. It's All About the Pentiums
8. The Saga Begins
9. Albuquerque
10. Ebay
11. Bob
12. Hardware Store
13. I'll Sue Ya
14. Canadian Idiot
15. Pancreas
16. Don't Download This Song
17. White & Nerdy
18. Trapped in the Drive-Thru
So the other day I was listening to the new "Weird Al" song, "Perform This Way" (a parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way), and I had a startling revalation. I said to myself, "Self, we have no 'Weird Al' in our collection!" to which my self replied, "By golly gosh darn, we don't! We should remedy that, post haste." Thusly I went to Walmart and got this, the "Essential" "Weird Al." I've always been a big fan of "Weird Al" and I think he's a lot more talented an artist than he's really given credit for. This collection has most of his more famous parodies like "Fat," "Eat It," "Amish Paradise" and the like. It's also got some of his originals - it's a good balance between the two I think.
The liner notes suggest that when "Weird Al" is at his best when not doing a parody and I have to agree. Some of my favorite songs on here are originals. "Trigger Happy," "Melanie," "You Don't Love Me Anymore," and "Everything You Know is Wrong" are all songs I love. I like a lot of these more than the parodies. Just listen to a complicated song like "Hardware Store" and try to tell me Al isn't a genius. Listening to this collection actually makes me want to go out and get some of these albums that I had when I was younger because I really remember enjoying them.
Useless Fact: The same four guys have been in Al's band since the 80's. That's longer than most bands out there now.
And each member of his band is an absolute top-notch musician who is able to play an amazingly broad range of styles to perfectly match the songs he is parodying. Years ago I read an interview with his drummer, who also drums for Those Darned Accordions, and how he picks just the right snare for a song from his huge collection and how he had to unlearn himself to play sloppily like Dave Grohl when they covered that Nirvana classic.
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