Poodle Hat
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| Poodle Hat | |||||
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| Studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic | |||||
| Released | May 20, 2003 | ||||
| Recorded | March 2002, March 2003 | ||||
| Genre | Comedy/Parody | ||||
| Length | 54:38 | ||||
| Label | Volcano | ||||
| Producer | "Weird Al" Yankovic | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| "Weird Al" Yankovic chronology | |||||
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| Singles from Poodle Hat | |||||
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Poodle Hat is the eleventh album by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It was released on May 20, 2003. The Album debuted at #17 on the Billboard 200, and later went gold.
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[edit] Enhanced CD
The album was released on an Enhanced CD. The bonus content includes some of Al's real home videos and his commentary on them, as well as synchronized lyrics and instrumental or acoustic versions of some songs. An Easter egg depicts Al with his wife, Suzanne, who also appears on the CD cover wearing a hat and glasses.
[edit] Track listing
| Track | Title | Length | (Style) Parody of | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Couch Potato" (Jeffrey Bass, Marshall Mathers, Luis Edgardo Resto) | 4:18 | "Lose Yourself" by Eminem | About a man's addiction to television. |
| 2 | "Hardware Store" (Yankovic) | 3:45 | Original[1] | A man gets overexcited about the new hardware store in town, maintains this exhilaration for months, camps out all night in anticipation of the grand opening, is the first in the new store's door and quickly lists everything the place has to sell including "automatic circumcisers". |
| 3 | "Trash Day" (Chuck Brown, Cornell Haynes, Pharrell Williams) | 3:12 | Parody of "Hot in Herre" by Nelly. | One couple's woes of a dirty apartment the day before the garbage is to be picked up. |
| 4 | "Party at the Leper Colony" (Yankovic) | 3:38 | Style parody of Bo Diddley. | Describes the titular party, with plenty of body-part puns. |
| 5 | "Angry White Boy Polka" | 5:04 | Polka Medley of "angry white boy music" (nu metal, alternative, garage rock, etc.) | A polka medley including the following songs:
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| 6 | "Wanna B Ur Lovr" (Yankovic) | 6:14 | Style parody of Prince. | The singer attempts to woo a woman with an astoundingly long list of cheesy pickup lines. |
| 7 | "A Complicated Song" | 3:39 | Parody of "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne | Deals with constipation, incest, and decapitation. Reportedly, Al tried to stretch each of these three things into a full song, but failed, so he included all three.[citation needed] |
| 8 | "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" (Yankovic) | 4:52 | Style parody of Ben Folds (a close friend of Yankovic, Folds plays piano on this track). | Singer laments the fact that whenever there's a massive tragedy, he is personally (usually slightly) inconvenienced. |
| 9 | "Ode to a Superhero" | 4:53 | Parody of "Piano Man" by Billy Joel | Details the plotline of the 2002 film Spider-Man. |
| 10 | "Bob" (Yankovic) | 2:29 | Style parody of Subterranean Homesick Blues | Song title and all of the lines in the song are palindromes. |
| 11 | "eBay" (Andreas Carlsson, Max Martin) | 3:36 | Parody of "I Want It That Way" by The Backstreet Boys | About eBay and the crazy things people list on it. |
| 12 | "Genius In France" (Yankovic) | 8:58 | Style parody of Frank Zappa. Title is a reference to the Zappa song "In France". | About a man who is considered not very bright in his hometown (presumably in America), but finds himself viewed as funny and smart by the French (title is thought by some to be an indirect reference to the urban legend that the French idolize and worship Jerry Lewis). Includes several in-jokes and references to Frank Zappa, including a typically Zappa-esque joke about poodles. The song also features the classic catchphrase "Great Googly Moogly", which Zappa used in "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow Suite" on Apostrophe (') (1974), and elsewhere. Also, the opening guitar solo is performed by Dweezil Zappa and sounds like the opening to Frank Zappa's "I'm the Slime" from Over-Nite Sensation. |
[edit] Music videos
A music video for "Couch Potato" was to be shot shortly after the album's release, but Eminem denied Al permission to shoot it. Yankovic told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2003: "We were already in pre-production. We believed that it was just a formality, that Eminem just wanted to hear the final mix of the song... And then we got a phone call saying he was not going to give permission for a video. We were devastated...I certainly don't have any bad feelings toward Eminem. He was gracious enough to let us use the song on the album--and we use "The Real Slim Shady" in the "Angry White Boy Polka" medley, too. But this is the first album I've ever released without an accompanying video." [2]
A quick video for "Bob" was shot instead and used on the tour and the 2003 edition of Al TV. The video for "Bob" can now be found on the "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection DVD. The video for "Bob" is an obvious take off of the promo video that was shot for D.A. Pennebaker's Dont Look Back, detailing Dylan's first tour of England, including Bob Dylan's song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues", which was included on Pennebaker's film. The song "Bob" also has very many similarities in rhythm and movement of Dylan's song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues". As the original short film featured famous beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the video shows a rabbi in the background (played by Al's drummer Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz) speaking with a man in a black suit (played by Al's long-time manager and UHF director Jay Levy).
[edit] Personnel
- "Weird Al" Yankovic - accordion, keyboards, sound effects, vocals, background vocals, clapping, shouts
- Jim West - guitar, mandolin, sound effects, vocals, clapping, shouts
- Steve Jay - bass, banjo, sound effects, vocals, clapping, shouts
- Rubén Valtierra - piano, keyboards
- Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz - drums, percussion, sound effects, vocals, clapping, shouts, laughs
- William K. Anderson - harmonica
- Kim Bullard - keyboards
- DJ Swamp - scratching
- Tom Evans - saxophone
- Tommy Johnson - tuba
- John "Juke" Logan - harmonica
- Warren Luening - trumpet
- Herb Pedersen - banjo
- Joel Peskin - clarinet
- Lisa Popeil - background vocals
- Lee R. Thomburg - trombone, trumpet
- Carmen Twilley - background vocals
- Julia Waters - vocals, background vocals
- Maxine Waters - background vocals
- Ben Folds - piano on "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?"
- Dweezil Zappa - opening guitar solo on "Genius in France"
[edit] Production
- Producer: Al Yankovic
- Engineers: Tony Papa, Rafael Serrano
- Assistant engineers: Aaron Kaplan, Doug Sanderson, Antony Zeller
- Mixing: Tony Papa
- Mastering: Bernie Grundman
- Arranger: "Weird Al" Yankovic
- Drum programming: Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz
- Design: Nick Gamma, Jackie Murphy
- Photography: Mark Seliger
[edit] Charts
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | The Billboard 200 | 17 |
| 2003 | Top Internet Albums | 17 |
[edit] Awards
Grammy Awards
| Year | Award | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Best Comedy Album | Poodle Hat |
[edit] References
- ^ Ask Al Archive for June 28, 2006. weirdal.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
- ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20030725/ai_n12511603 Speaking With "Weird Al", Chicago Sun Times, July 25, 2003
