Maps of Music

Even Worse (1988)

Where the lyrics of Even Worse take you, and where it was really made.

The album's title and cover spoof Michael Jackson's Bad, and this parody record revived 'Weird Al' Yankovic's career after his previous album failed.

Key places

Where Even Worse was recorded (1988)

Recording site Santa Monica Sound Recorders — Even Worse was recorded between November 1987 and February 1988. The recording location is listed as Santa Monica Sound Recorders in Santa Monica. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Even Worse: fifth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic
• Released April 12, 1988
• Produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer
• Built around parodies and pastiches of late-1980s pop and rock
• Half of the album is parodies, half is original material
• Several original tracks are "style parodies" that imitate specific artists
• Title and cover art spoof Michael Jackson's 1987 album Bad
• One of two Yankovic albums with no polka renditions of pop songs or medleys

Background

• Follows Polka Party! (1986), which was a critical and commercial failure
• Polka Party! did not yield a charting single and peaked at number 177 on the Billboard 200
• After that album, Yankovic said, "I thought it was the end of my career."
• Took a break from recording for most of 1987
• Returned to the studio near the end of 1987 to record the originals

Recording

• Recorded between November 1987 and February 1988
• Originals recorded in three sessions, beginning November 30, 1987, December 1, 1987, and February 18, 1988
• Rick Derringer was brought back as producer
• Four of the five parodies were begun on February 18, 1988
• The final parody, "Lasagna", was begun on February 19, 1988

Cover

• Title and cover art are spoofs of Michael Jackson's 1987 album Bad

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is an American musician known for comedy songs that often parody other musicians' songs.
• He also performs original songs in the style of other acts and polka medleys of popular songs, usually featuring his accordion.
• His first on-air exposure came in 1976, when a comedy song he made was played on The Dr. Demento Radio Show at age 16.
• He has sold more than 12 million albums (as of 2025), recorded more than 150 parodies and original songs, and performed more than 2,000 live shows.
• He has won five Grammy Awards and earned eleven further nominations.
• His first top ten Billboard album (Straight Outta Lynwood) and single ("White & Nerdy") were both released in 2006.
• His album Mandatory Fun (2014) became his first number-one album in its debut week.
• He wrote and starred in the film UHF (1989) and the television series The Weird Al Show (1997).
• He has produced two satirical films about his own life: The Compleat Al (1985) and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022).
• He has not released a full album since Mandatory Fun and mainly releases singles.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Even Worse was met with mostly positive reviews
• AllMusic gave the album four out of five stars, one of the highest ratings for Yankovic on the site
• AllMusic reviewer Eugene Chadbourne said Yankovic's recordings were getting better again
• Bruce Britt of Daily News of Los Angeles praised the album
• Britt wrote that Yankovic's lampoons are often wittier than the songs they spoof
• Many critics praised the lead single "Fat"
• Chadbourne praised "Good Old Days" and "Stuck in a Closet with Vanna White" as some of the best originals

Reappraisal

• Earlier albums were praised for parodies but criticized for originals
• Chadbourne wrote that this album also produced funny original material
• Both the album and "Fat" were nominated for Grammys
• The album did not win a Grammy
• "Fat" won the Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video at the 1989 Grammy Awards

Records

• Released April 12, 1988, and was Yankovic's best-selling album at the time of release
• Peaked at number 27 on the Billboard 200 on July 2, 1988
• Spent a total of 26 weeks on the chart
• Certified Gold by the RIAA on July 18, 1988
• Certified Platinum by the RIAA on January 27, 1994, his first Platinum record
• Best-selling album until the release of Off the Deep End in 1992
• Lead single "Fat" peaked at number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album was originally set to include a polka of all U2 songs, but it was dropped because of licensing issues.
• Jackson approved the "Fat" parody and let Yankovic use his own Moonwalker subway set for the music video.
• Yankovic gave Jackson a gold record of Even Worse after the album sold over 500,000 copies, and Jackson ordered twelve copies for his friends.
• The song "Lasagna" was originally planned to be sung in Italian before Yankovic chose English with a bad Italian accent.
• On May 21, 1988, Yankovic appeared as a contestant on the game show Family Double Dare to promote the album.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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