Alapalooza

Alapalooza
Front cover of the Alapalooza album. A skeletal tyrannosaurs with the head of "Weird Al" Yankovic is framed by a yellow circle with a shadowy jungle and a red border across the entire scene. The name of the artist and the album appear in white letters above a pure black background.
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 5, 1993
RecordedJune 7, 1990; November 30, 1992 – August 18, 1993[1]
GenreComedy, parody
Length44:34
LabelRock 'n Roll Records
Scotti Brothers
Producer"Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic chronology
The Food Album
(1993)
Alapalooza
(1993)
Permanent Record: Al in the Box
(1994)
Singles from Alapalooza
  1. "Jurassic Park"
    Released: October 1993
  2. "Bedrock Anthem"
    Released: November 16, 1993
  3. "Achy Breaky Song"
    Released: December 7, 1993

Alapalooza is the eighth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1993. By the completion of his previous album, Off the Deep End, Yankovic had already written all of the original songs that he planned to use on his next release. This new album, which would eventually be titled Alapalooza in reference to the music festival Lollapalooza, consisted of seven original songs and five parodies. It produced three parody singles: "Jurassic Park", "Bedrock Anthem", and "Achy Breaky Song". "Jurassic Park" was a top five hit on the Canadian magazine The Record's single chart.

Among the album's original creations were "Talk Soup", a tune originally intended to replace the theme song of the television show of the same name, and "Harvey the Wonder Hamster", an oft-requested jingle from one of Yankovic's Al TV specials. A music video compilation, entitled Alapalooza: the Videos, was released the following year and contained four videos, only two of which were from its eponymous album. One of the videos, the one for "Jurassic Park", was animated entirely in the style of claymation and received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video at the 37th Grammy Awards, losing to "Love Is Strong" from the Rolling Stones.

Alapalooza met with average to negative reception upon its release, with some critics commenting that the album seemed hurried and out of touch with contemporary music. The video offering received a similarly lukewarm response. Nonetheless, the album was certified "gold" in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America by the end of the year, peaking at number 46 on the Billboard 200, and went "double platinum" in Canada.

  1. ^ Yankovic, Al (2017). Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic (liner notes). Legacy Recordings.