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Polka Party! (1986)

Where the lyrics of Polka Party! take you, and where it was really made.

Polka Party! was the lowest-charting studio album of Weird Al Yankovic's career, yet Rolling Stone gave it three and a half stars, the same rating as his best-rated album.

Key places

Recording studio for the 1986 sessions (1986)

Recording site Santa Monica Sound Recorders — The 1986 sessions for this album are tied to this recording studio in Santa Monica. The studio is listed as the recording location for the album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Polka Party!: fourth studio album by American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic
• Released October 21, 1986
• Produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer
• Built around parodies and pastiches of mid-1980s pop and rock music
• Direct parodies of James Brown, Mick Jagger, El DeBarge and Robert Palmer
• Also includes style parodies that imitate artists such as Talking Heads and genres such as country music
• Follow-up to the successful 1985 release Dare to Be Stupid
• Lead single "Living with a Hernia" failed to chart
• Titular polka medley is his only medley sharing its name with an album

Background

• Yankovic entered the studio in April 1986 to begin sessions for this follow-up
• Rick Derringer had also produced Yankovic's previous albums
• Backing musicians: Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, Steve Jay on bass, Jim West on guitar
• Yankovic described the record as not much different from his earlier albums
• He called the process a bit formulaic

Recording

• Recorded between April and September 1986
• Made in roughly three sessions
• First session, April 22 and 23, yielded four originals
• Second session, August 4 and 5, produced three parodies
• Final session, August 29 to September 1, produced one parody, one original and the polka medley
• Parody of James Brown's Living in America was the lead single pick
• Parody of Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love was recorded second
• Parody of DeBarge's Who's Johnny was recorded August 5
• Parody of Mick Jagger's Ruthless People was recorded August 29, 1986

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

• AllMusic reviewer Eugene Chadbourne gave the album three stars
• Chadbourne was largely critical of the parody choices
• He noted that many original versions would be forgotten in fifteen years
• Christopher Thelen of The Daily Vault gave the album an F
• Thelen wrote that both the parodies and originals were not good
• Rolling Stone awarded the album three-and-a-half stars
• Rolling Stone's rating tied it with Off the Deep End (1992) and Running with Scissors (1999) as Yankovic's best-rated album

Reappraisal

• Many songs became fan favorites and live staples, including Dog Eat Dog, Addicted to Spuds and Christmas at Ground Zero
• Living with a Hernia and Addicted to Spuds appeared on Yankovic's first greatest hits album (1988)
• Christmas at Ground Zero appeared on the second volume (1994)
• The 1994 box set Permanent Record: Al in the Box contained five of the album's songs
• Only Dog Eat Dog appeared on the 2009 Essential collection

Records

• Peaked at No. 177 on the Billboard 200
• Lowest-charting studio album by Yankovic
• Compared with Dare to Be Stupid (No. 50) and In 3-D (No. 17), considered a commercial disappointment
• Nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording, losing to Bill Cosby's Those of You with or Without Children, You'll Understand
• Not certified Gold or Platinum by the RIAA

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Christmas at Ground Zero came from the label's insistence on a Christmas record, but some radio stations banned it after release
• Yankovic directed his own video for Christmas at Ground Zero, mostly made from stock footage, with a live-action finale shot in a run-down part of the Bronx
• Here's Johnny features John Roarke of Fridays doing an impression of Ed McMahon's voice
• Peter Wolf, who wrote Who's Johnny, personally brought the floppy disc with the synthesizer parts into the studio
• Jagger had approved the parody of Ruthless People, so Yankovic felt failing to release it would be an insult to him
• Yankovic said he thought the album was the end of his career

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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