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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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To: Slyfox

How funny VH1 actually did a “Behind the Music” episode about Al

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzwQofyOp30


21 posted on 07/24/2014 7:01:17 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SeekAndFind; GeronL

What were the charts like in the 60s, 70s, and 80s?

Did it only take 104,000 copies of an album sale to hit #1?

It’s funny that the music biz has long said that new album sales are down because of “bootlegging”/downloading.

Does that same excuse hold for low Summer movie ticket sales? Declining tv and radio audiences? Declining newspaper and magazine sales?


22 posted on 07/24/2014 7:02:41 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Elian Gonzalez sought asylum and was sent back to Cuba, send these kids back to THEIR parents.)
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To: Sans-Culotte
I will never be able to enjoy Weird Al’s parodies again, because I am 100% unfamiliar with the material he is satirizing.

I know the feeling. I just don't like the new music. I have 5 kids so I hear it, just don't like it.

Art died with the Impressionists. Classical Music died with Mozart.

23 posted on 07/24/2014 7:02:47 AM PDT by FatherofFive (Islam is evil and must be eradicated)
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To: SeekAndFind
Weird Al was joking on one of the music shows a few years back about how he was "just" a one-hit wonder. Although he was had dozens of top 40 songs, the only one to crack the top 10 was "White and Nerdy", his parody of "Ridin' Dirty" that hit 8 on the charts several years ago, technically making him a one-hit wonder by the standard definition of "an artist or group with only one top ten song". (of course he was in good company, because under that definition so was "The Grateful Dead", their only top ten song being "Touch of Grey")

Lol! I guess now he is a bonafide artist and not just a "flash in the pan" one-hit wonder....

24 posted on 07/24/2014 7:03:11 AM PDT by apillar
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To: FlipWilson

Agree, well deserved!


25 posted on 07/24/2014 7:03:26 AM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: SeekAndFind
The only two entertainers I know who refused to give him permission were Paul McCartney and Prince.

He got permission form Coolio to parody his "Gangsta Paradise." When his "Amish Paradise" came out Coolio thought it made fun of his creative effort and began telling everyone that he never gave permission for Al to do it. Al said later, "Well, he is cashing the checks I send him."

26 posted on 07/24/2014 7:05:17 AM PDT by Slyfox (When progressives ignore moral parameters, they also lose the natural gift of common sense.)
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To: Sans-Culotte

Joke songs used to be so good that someone could cover them and make a “serious” hit.

It happened with Rock Around The Clock, Love Me (Treat Me Like A Fool), and Wild Thing. None of those were originals even though they became big hits.

Even the knocks and dings at “hep” music were more listenable than today’s choppp-ppp-pppp-eeededededdDDDDDDD techno-voice processed-dupstep-rapcrap.

Monkeys playing rock and roll in the between episode chatter of Lancelot Link? Still solid songs.

Banana Splits? Songs written by the likes of Barry White.


27 posted on 07/24/2014 7:07:39 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Elian Gonzalez sought asylum and was sent back to Cuba, send these kids back to THEIR parents.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Weird Al as Hitler on “Drunk History” was hilarious. The funny clip isn’t on the web anywhere.

I found something I didn’t know about Weird Al while looking for the clip. He will not do anything if it involves using a curse word. Pretty rare these days.


28 posted on 07/24/2014 7:10:03 AM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (Liberals make unrealistic demands on reality and reality doesn't oblige them.)
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To: dfwgator
You’d have to be living under a rock to not at least be familiar with “Happy.”

There seems to be plenty of room under my rock.

I don't know what a Kardashian looks like either.

And I feel fine.

29 posted on 07/24/2014 7:10:44 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Elian Gonzalez sought asylum and was sent back to Cuba, send these kids back to THEIR parents.)
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To: a fool in paradise
I don't know what a Kardashian looks like either.

Consider yourself lucky.

30 posted on 07/24/2014 7:11:27 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Sans-Culotte

I have the same problem. That said, even though I’d never heard the original version, I loved “White and Nerdy.”


31 posted on 07/24/2014 7:15:48 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I'm not anti-government, government's anti-me.)
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To: Maceman

“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.”

That’s a drag, man.


32 posted on 07/24/2014 7:16:26 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I'm not anti-government, government's anti-me.)
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To: dfwgator

I know what Disco Duck is but disco songs and their parodies didn’t age well.


33 posted on 07/24/2014 7:16:39 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Elian Gonzalez sought asylum and was sent back to Cuba, send these kids back to THEIR parents.)
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To: Sans-Culotte

Watch the video for Word Crimes. It doesn’t matter if you know the original song (I didn’t). It’s BRILLIANT.


34 posted on 07/24/2014 7:18:00 AM PDT by Personal Responsibility (I'd use the /S tag but is it really necessary?)
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To: a fool in paradise
Imagine a latina prostitute with giant silicone boobs and a large ass that won the lottery, and that basically sums her up.
35 posted on 07/24/2014 7:18:08 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: SeekAndFind

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

Just for the record, copyright law does not require permission from the original author/composer for parodies. Al does it as a courtesy to the artist.

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

Sort of along these lines, Jimmy Page also refused permission for a Led Zeppelin polka medley.


36 posted on 07/24/2014 7:18:42 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I'm not anti-government, government's anti-me.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Is that top photo a homage to Obama?


37 posted on 07/24/2014 7:18:42 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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To: dfwgator

I remember seeing that. They must have really had to scrape to find anything to put in it, given that he’s pretty straitlaced as popular musicians go.


38 posted on 07/24/2014 7:20:20 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I'm not anti-government, government's anti-me.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The best I like is “loose”. “Oh that Obama is such a looser. Oh I hate those rappers who wear their pants lose”


39 posted on 07/24/2014 7:20:34 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers

My personal favorite

Trapped in the Drive Thru
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmGVYki-oyQ


40 posted on 07/24/2014 7:21:15 AM PDT by dfwgator
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