7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We got it all on UHF... the soundtrack that is., December 5, 2003
This review is from: UHF: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)
After the middle-of-the-road Even Worse, Al made a movie, UHF, now a cult 80's film, and the soundtrack to it shows him back in form. How many hours did Mr. Yankovic lie awake thinking about how to incorporate the lyrics to the Beverly Hillbillies song to Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing". Mark Knopfler was generous enough, as he also did the guitar for this song!
"Gandhi II" is a TV trailer from the UHF movie. "Next week, on U62, he's back, and this time he's mad. No more Mr. Passive Resistance" and it's done to the melody from Shaft by Isaac Hayes.
"Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from A Planet Near Mars." Yes, sounds like the title of a bad 1950's UFO movie and if you ever heard "Slime Creatures From Outer Space" from Dare To Be Stupid, you get the idea what kind of song it is. I wonder if Al had a pet hamster and was staring at intently enough to come up with a wacky song. Hamsters the size of a blimp, who play electric guitars, and "think the whole stinkin' world is their exercise wheel"... wow!
"Isle Thing" incorporates a TV song with Tone-Loc's "Wild Thing" and Al's mimicking Mr. Loc's voice is simply funny. "I'm watching that Gilligan's Isle Thing" is the tag line to the chorus. His commentary on the various characters is great, as he says that Ginger and Maryann could've used some funky cold medina. And on the Professor, "If he's so fly, then tell me why he couldn't build a lousy raft?" Hasta la vista, little buddy!
Polka time, and this time it's all Rolling Stones song. "The Hot Rocks Polka" consists of a medley of "It's Only Rock And Roll", "Brown Sugar", "You Can't Always Get What You Want", "Honky Tonky Women", "Under My Thumb", "Ruby Tuesday", "Miss You", "Sympathy For The Devil", "Get Off Of My Cloud", "Shattered", "Let's Spend The Night Together", and "I Can't Get No Satisfaction."
The title track is another TV song and invites the listener to become a couch potato because "we got it all on UHF." However, don't watch too much, as Al sings "You can sit around and stare at the picture tube/'til your brain turns into cottage cheese."
"Let Me Be Your Hog" is a brief bluesy-rocker that gets cut off and segues into his parody of Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy", which is "She Drives Like Crazy." The driving-challenged girl here does "eighty...in second gear" and "got [her] license from Cracker Jacks." Auto sound effects are used here.
"Generic Blues" is a George Thorogood-like blues rock parody of the usual subjects of blues songs and even mixes things up around: "My daddy was a waitress/my mama sold bathroom tile/my brothers and sisters all hated me/'cause I was an only child." Funniest line: "I'd flush myself right down the toilet/but I'd just clog up the drain."
"Spatula City" is a commercial for spatulas of every shape, size, and colour, "Fun Zone" is a skippy instrumental--was it used in the movie as a prelude for a TV show?
"Spam" is a send-up of R.E.M.'s "Stand", much more developed than Monty Python's spam song to be sure.
The country-ish "The Biggest Ball OF Twine in Minnesota" starts another Al tradition--meandering marathon goofy story songs. Well, that's where the protagonists' kids want to go. It does indeed make one wonder, "Ohhh, what on earth would make a man decide to do that sort of thing/Ohhh, windin' up 21,140 pounds of string/What was he tryin' to prove?/Who was he tryin' to impress?" and other such questions.
After a slight dip that lowered with Even Worse, UHF is Even Better, as it shows Al back in silly form. Maybe doing the movie helped. Al's second wind would continue with his next album, and brother, was he really off the deep end.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weird is definetly cool when Al is in charge., July 5, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: UHF: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)
"Weird Al Yankovic is the most succesful recording comedian in history, and this album prooves it. I recently saw the movie "UHF", and while I have to live with the fact that critics called it a flop, I call it a cult classic. So far, off the soundtrack, I've heard "Spam", "Money For Nothing/The Beverly Hillbillies", and of course "UHF", and I consider them all my favorites. I want to get the soundtrack, as well as the new album, Running with Scissors, and I would like to wish Al a n early happy birthday. 40 years old. Un-b-lieve-able.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Al strikes again!, July 3, 2004
This review is from: UHF: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)
UHF was a great movie, and Al topped it off by putting out a great soundtrack. It was great to hear the songs from the movie, such as Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies and UHF, but Al also brought in new parodies and originals to complete this album. He's at his best in the originals. Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars has a lot of funny moments, as do Generic Blues and The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota. For parodies, Al is seldom funnier than he is in Spam. It is truly an indicator of Al's awesome abilites. This album, just like its corresponding movie, is sadly underrated.
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