I have a song for you....
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 ...
I saw an interview of Al. Comes off as a very normal, ordinary guy.
What about the Reggae/Zepplin/Elvis themed novelty band “Dread Zepplin” that had some hits and toured in the 90s?
I am familiar with the word "happy", and I believe one of the 7 dwarfs was named "Happy". What is this "Happy" of which you speak? Is it a song? Why would I be familiar with it if, as I already said, I only listen to Sinatra or classical music? I'm at my desk at work listening to the Darmstadt Overtures by Georg Phillip Telemann as I write this.
I don’t know, his stuff is still pretty funny even if you don’t know what he’s spoofing. Sure you’re missing 1 joke of the song, but there’s always 8 or 9 jokes. He is just plain a funny guy.
The Rolling Stones had a song called Happy on their Exile on Main St. album back in the early 70s.
I clicked on the Weird Al clip and it didn’t sound like that.
And I didn’t recognize the Weird Al music for Tacky even as anything I’ve heard in the background.
Avoiding the mall has its rewards.
I must live under a rock. The only “Happy” I know is a relatively obscure Rolling Stones song from Exile on Main St. Me and pop music don’t get along.
I bet you’ll find you don’t need to know the original material to find him funny. He’s not merely satirizing songs; he’s largely using their melodies and arrangements as a medium for his own funny lyrics; he also creates several of his own melodies.
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Maybe the funniest comic strip ever.
Love his songs. “Traffic Jam” and “Frank’s 2000 Inch TV” cracked me up.
A woman I used to work met him while she was on vacation in LA at of all places the La Brea Tar Pits. She said he was a very nice guy. I never did find out what he was doing there.
Yep..the riff from the Gilligan’s Island Theme in the middle is brilliant
I apologize for my misspelling. You are right, I was singing it correctly, but typed it incorrectly.
The album may only be worth 79 cents, but the memories of listening to it with mom and dad, are priceless.
Picasso and Beethoven have a bone to pick with you.
No, he’s very talented and sharp. But it just doesn’t have the same kick when current pop stuff hasn’t been inflicted upon you at all. I also like his originals and the medleys, but his main gig is making fun of the newest thing at the time, and it doesn’t work as well if you thankfully haven’t been subjected to the newest thing for years.
He should do a classics album or go back and get some of the songs he missed, but then of course he’s cutting down on his audience in the other direction.
FReegards
“You’d have to be living under a rock to not at least be familiar with “Happy.””
Pop culture sucks. Quite happy under my rock.
I'll give you Beethoven and Chopin. Picasso not so much.
Here's one on usage of the English language that is hilarious. You should be familiar with that subject matter.
I do. I still have the giant rolling paper inside the Big Bambu album.
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