The Essential Weird Al Yankovic

Weird Al Yankovic | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 26, 2009)
• Original Release Date: October 26, 2009
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Sony Legacy
• ASIN: B002KREVEC
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,005 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #4 in Music > Miscellaneous > Comedy > Comedic Music > Comedy Rock
  • #8 in Music > Miscellaneous > Comedy > Comedic Music > General
  • #10 in Music > Miscellaneous > Comedy > Comedic Music > Novelty Music

Track Listings

Disc: 1

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

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

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

See all 18 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

2009 two CD career-spanning collection of tracks hand-picked by Weird Al himself. Yankovic is a true artistic genius in the classic sense of the word. No other artist can parody a song or a music video without being directly compared to the maestro. Throughout his career, Al has offered up an alternate reality of sorts to the history of pop music, lovingly re-casting hits of all genres into bizarre and hilarious songs and videos that themselves have become hits. Al's work became so synonymous with the hits they parodied that Michael Jackson gave Al access to the 'Bad' video set to make his classic 'Fat' video! This is to say nothing of Al's original songs which are as witty and endearing as his parody work. 40 tracks.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It really IS "Essential" October 28, 2009

By Julie

Format:Audio CD

I picked this up yesterday, not realizing it was the day the album was released. I just saw Al on CD, and that caught my attention. I'd always been a fan, but the only other album I own is Alapalooza on cassette. So it seemed like a perfect excuse to expand my collection.

Looking at the track list, it seemed like a truly complete and well-rounded Al compilation--all his greatest hits over his career. The songs really are that good, and the track listing represents itself. In fact, the only song I personally miss is "Living in the Fridge" (parody of Aerosmith's "Living on the Edge").

So besides the songs, what else is there? Well... there's a great essay by Steven Thomas of The Onion/AV Club, and there is a wealth of photos from over Al's 30 year career. All of that adds to the overall value of the package for me. It's also a really good way to introduce new and casual fans to more of Al's work.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars More Fun Than the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota November 19, 2009

By Jeff Pearlman

Format:Audio CD

The disappointment in realizing that WAY decided not to include "Ricky", his first Hot 100 hit and a double parody of "Mickey" and "I Love Lucy", is more than offset by the 38 funny tunes that are here. I've played "Your Horoscope For Today" about ten times and laughed out loud every time. I'm also glad to have "White and Nerdy" since I am very old and allergic to (legal or illegal) downloading. Overall the funniest CD since "Britney Spears: The Singles Collection" and you need to buy it, especially at the lovely current Amazon price of (deleted in case it changes someday).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Collection November 5, 2009

By The Purple Menace

Format:Audio CD

I wish i could say I was an old school weird Al fan, but I'm nowhere near old enough. I can say that I was a fan before the huge White and Nerdy wave swept over my school. There is a great selection of songs on here. Of course it covers all the major singles like Eat it,Like a Surgeon,Amish Paradise,White and Nerdy,and the very old, Another One Rides the Bus. This song, going by his behind the music, was originally recorded in a bathroom in his college.

I saw another reviewer bring up the exclusion of Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies. This does suck because otherwise you'd have to get it on the UHF album. This album had very few highlights and is only really good if you a big fan of the UHF movie. Which you should be because that movie was awesome and would have been a big hit if Indy Jones hadn't also come out. But that's just my opinion. This is a great album for new fans of Mr. Yankovic, especially at a price of 14 bucks for 38 songs.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A good comprehensive look, but missing a few key selections October 26, 2009

By Brad K. Beahm

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Weird Al Yankovic has had a very successful career poking fun at some of best-known songs in the music industry. Who could forget his parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad" or "Beat It". Personally, I really love the parody of The President's of the United States of America. "Gump" definitely has to be up there with some of the finest and well crafted songs he has ever performed.

However, there are a few key tracks from this compilation that have gone MIA. How could this collection not include "Headline News". As any Yankovic knows, this was a parody from the Crash Test Dummies "Mmm,Mmm,Mmm,Mmm" hit. In all honesty, I like Weird Al's rendition of this song better than the original. Besides the song, the music video for "Headline News" is hysterical. To exclude this song from this collection is a travesty, and thus I have to knock a star off this review for this unbelievable omission. The omissions of "Achy Breaky Song" and "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" also are unacceptable. I am not sure if Weird Al had a say-so in the song selection, but keeping these tracks, as well as some others really hurts the album's "essential" label.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A parodist looks at 50 February 14, 2010

By Gena Chereck

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

To begin with, "Weird Al" Yankovic -- who just turned 50 last year -- is someone I always forget how much I've liked until I happen to hear a new song from him. I heard the Michael Jackson parody "Eat It" sometime in the 1980s when I was very young, and I thought it was a hoot; after that, listening to The Dr. Demento Show in the early '90s, I was introduced to songs like "Fat," "Smells Like Nirvana" (my personal fave), the Beach Boys pastiche "Trigger Happy," and "You Don't Love Me Anymore." A few years later, the Coolio parody "Amish Paradise" came along, and in 1999 I caught "The Saga Begins" (the plot of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace set to the tune of "American Pie") and VH1's cheeky Behind The Music special. Then "White & Nerdy" and the hysterical charity-single goof "Don't Download This Song" caught my attention in 2006. All of the aforementioned tracks are included in this 2-disc, 38-track Essential collection -- indeed, it's the Weird Al retrospective I've been waiting for.

Al's first 8 albums (from 1983 to 1993) have been anthologized many times before -- on two volumes of Greatest Hits, the box set Permanent Record, The Food Album, The TV Album -- and now they're revisited on Disc 1 of this set. But this set is the first time his 4 albums from 1996 to 2006 have received the best-of treatment; this period is covered on Disc 2. Given that the tracks on Essential were picked by the man himself -- including a mix of hits, his personal favorites, and fan faves -- I can't really argue with what he apparently feels is his best and most enduring work. Anyway, this was meant as an introduction for beginning fans, and besides, any compilation NOT specifically based on which songs were released as singles and/or how high they charted is bound to come up short for longtime fans.... (For the record, from what little I've heard on the radio, I'm already missing "Stop Draggin' My Car Around," "Christmas At Ground Zero," "When I Was Your Age," "Couch Potato," and "Ode To A Superhero.")

Frankly, I'd rather address what actually IS here. Though Weird Al is most widely known for his parodies of Top 40 pop hits ("Like A Surgeon," "eBay") and rock classics ("Yoda," "Jurassic Park"), his original tunes are often equally accomplished -- from twisted love songs like the nasty heartbreak ballad "One More Minute," the power pop-y "Melanie" and the doo-wop ditty "Since You've Been Gone," to the off-the-wall narratives of "The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota" and "Albuquerque," to the remarkable rapid-fire sections of "Your Horoscope For Today" and "Hardware Store." Furthermore, he and his longtime bandmates -- drummer Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, bassist Steve Jay, and guitarist Jim West -- prove themselves incredibly versatile performers, moving deftly from polka (the covers medley "Polkas On 45") to New Wave ("Dare To Be Stupid" and "Dog Eat Dog," dead-on "style parodies" of Devo and the Talking Heads, respectively) to rap and R&B ("It's All About The Pentiums," "Trapped In The Drive-Thru") to symphonic pop (the Brian Wilson homage "Pancreas"). Regardless of whether or not you think Al's lyrical jokes hold up, you really can't deny the sheer craftsmanship that went into the music.

Weird Al's career has lasted a good 30 years (which is as long as I've been *alive*), outlasting the careers of most of the artists he's parodied. Early on, after his accordion-driven self-titled 1983 debut (represented here only by "Another One Rides The Bus," an acoustic single he had actually recorded in 1980), he and his band realized the best jokes are told with a straight face rather than with a giggle; throughout this set's 2-and-a-half+ hours, you can follow the band's musical growth, as well as Al's knack for keeping up with current trends without altering himself in any fundamental sense (i.e. occasional mild vulgarity and gross-out humor aside, his lyrics are intended for a general audience, and have never resorted to outright profanity). Not that Al shows any signs of slowing down, either: He is currently working on a new album -- five of the tracks having already been previewed on last year's digital EP Internet Leaks -- and I am most certainly looking forward to whatever he does next. Read more ›