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'Weird Al' Yankovic Gets First No. 1 Album On Billboard 200 with 'Mandatory Fun'
Billboard ^ | 07/24/2014 | By Keith Caulfield

Posted on 07/24/2014 6:37:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

After more than 30 years on the charts, comedian-singer "Weird Al" Yankovic earns his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as "Mandatory Fun" debuts atop the list. The album is the first comedy set to top the chart since 1963, and logs the largest sales week for a comedy album since 1994.

"Mandatory Fun" was released July 15 through Way Moby and RCA Records, and sold 104,000 copies in the week ending July 20, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was promoted by a well-receiveddaily viral video campaign that launched Monday, July 14. Starting with his parody of Pharrell's "Happy," Yankovic released eight music videos for the album through the week on various sites, like The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo, Nerdist, College Humor and YouTube.

"Mandatory" is the first comedy album to top the Billboard 200 since Allan Sherman's "My Son, the Nut" spent eight weeks at No. 1 beginning on the chart dated Aug. 31, 1963. A couple of comedy sets came close since then, including Steve Martin's No. 2-peaking "A Wild and Crazy Guy" back in 1978 and a pair of No. 2 Cheech & Chong titles in the early 1970s.

(Excerpt) Read more at billboard.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Music/Entertainment; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: billboard; comedy; mandatoryfun; top10; weirdal; weirdalyankovic; yankovic
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1 posted on 07/24/2014 6:37:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind


2 posted on 07/24/2014 6:38:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I will never be able to enjoy Weird Al’s parodies again, because I am 100% unfamiliar with the material he is satirizing. Unless he satirizes Sinatra, or Mozart, or Bach or Beethoven, I will no longer be able to get the joke.


3 posted on 07/24/2014 6:41:05 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte (Psalm 14:1 ~ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”)
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To: SeekAndFind

WORD CRIMES (parody of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines)


4 posted on 07/24/2014 6:41:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
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To: SeekAndFind
A couple of comedy sets came close since then, including Steve Martin's No. 2-peaking "A Wild and Crazy Guy" back in 1978 and a pair of No. 2 Cheech & Chong titles in the early 1970s.

Gee. Now I feel guilty because I always meant to buy those Cheech & Chong albums back when I was in college in the early 1970s, but for some reason I kept forgetting to do it.

5 posted on 07/24/2014 6:41:56 AM PDT by Maceman
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To: SeekAndFind

FOIL (Parody of Lorde's Royals)



6 posted on 07/24/2014 6:42:29 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I LOVE “Amish Paradise” - I can watch that over and over...


7 posted on 07/24/2014 6:43:13 AM PDT by Mr. K (Palin/Cruz 2016)
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To: Maceman

Probably all that Labrador you were smokin’


8 posted on 07/24/2014 6:47:33 AM PDT by SpinnerWebb (IN-SAPORIBVS-SICVT-PVLLVM)
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To: SeekAndFind

Well deserved for a decent guy. Unlike many of the artists he parodies, Al doesn’t do drugs or drink to excess. You don’t hear about him cracking up his Porches or going to rehab. Family man too.


9 posted on 07/24/2014 6:47:55 AM PDT by fatnotlazy
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To: SeekAndFind

Great album, very funny. Watch the video for “word crimes.” Even if you don’t know the song being sent up, watch it as it hits social media and its impact on the millennial’s writing skills right in then nose.


10 posted on 07/24/2014 6:49:56 AM PDT by FlipWilson
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To: SeekAndFind
At football games, the USC Trojan Marching Band plays Weird Al's Another One Rides the Bus whenever the defense sacks the opposing team's quarterback.
11 posted on 07/24/2014 6:50:59 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: fatnotlazy

People who know him actually say that he isn’t “Weird” in real life.

He actually gets the permission of the writers and the artists of the song he parodies.

Heck, the artists consider it an HONOR to be parodied by him.

The only two entertainers I know who refused to give him permission were Paul McCartney and Prince.


12 posted on 07/24/2014 6:51:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
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To: Maceman

I don’t have those Cheech and Chong albums, a bit before my time, but my parents had the Allan Sherman record, and I adored that as a kid.

I still have it. I wonder if it’s worth anything.

Hello mother? Hello father?


13 posted on 07/24/2014 6:53:22 AM PDT by Gefn ("I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder ")
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To: Mr. K; All
*snickering*
not Ninja approved, AL.

14 posted on 07/24/2014 6:53:56 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a weapon...0'Bathhouse/"Rustler" Reid? d8-)
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To: Sans-Culotte

You’d have to be living under a rock to not at least be familiar with “Happy.”


15 posted on 07/24/2014 6:54:38 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Sans-Culotte
I thoroughly enjoyed his 'Word Crimes' video via you tube even though I have never heard the song it is parodying. The clip is outstanding in its own right.

Just for fun, I read the 800 plus you tube comments and there were dozens of comments stating that his version (about misuse of grammar)was completely superior to the original tune (mo pimps and hos) in every way!
16 posted on 07/24/2014 6:56:42 AM PDT by Company Man (Don't call them liberals)
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To: fatnotlazy
Well deserved for a decent guy. Unlike many of the artists he parodies, Al doesn’t do drugs or drink to excess. You don’t hear about him cracking up his Porches or going to rehab. Family man too.

Al was offered a multi-million dollar contract to do some beer commercials. He turned it down because he said that most of his fans are under-aged and he didn't want influence them in that way.

17 posted on 07/24/2014 6:57:41 AM PDT by Slyfox (When progressives ignore moral parameters, they also lose the natural gift of common sense.)
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To: SpinnerWebb

Way too easy...


18 posted on 07/24/2014 6:59:10 AM PDT by stormhill
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To: SeekAndFind

Right on. Go Al!


19 posted on 07/24/2014 7:00:46 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. ~Steve Earle)
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To: Company Man
Just for fun, I read the 800 plus you tube comments and there were dozens of comments stating that his version (about misuse of grammar)was completely superior to the original tune (mo pimps and hos) in every way!

I got to know Al through my kids. Most of the songs he parodies I had never heard the originals and when I did hear the originals I was amazed at how good his version really was.

20 posted on 07/24/2014 7:00:47 AM PDT by Slyfox (When progressives ignore moral parameters, they also lose the natural gift of common sense.)
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