List of "Weird Al" Yankovic polka medleys

Polka-style medleys of cover songs are a distinguishing part of American musician, satirist, parodist, and songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic's catalog. Twelve of his fourteen albums contain them; his self-titled debut and Even Worse omit them.[1]

The medleys are composed of various popular songs, each one reinterpreted as a polka (generally an instrumentation of accordion, banjo, tuba, clarinet, and muted brass interspersed with sound effects) with the choruses or memorable lines of various songs juxtaposed for humorous effect and profane lyrics are covered with cartoon sound effects. Yankovic has been known to say that converting these songs to polka was "...the way God intended".[2] Yankovic said that the medleys were something he did "even before I had a record deal" in live performances, and that many of the songs are included due to not receiving a full parody version - "if there's a song that I think is really ripe for parody but I just can't think of a clever enough idea, sometimes it'll end up in the polka medley."[3] Regarding their popularity, Yankovic has said, "At this point, it's sort of mandatory for me to do a polka medley. Fans would be rioting in the streets, I think, if I didn't do a polka medley."[2] Yankovic has always asked permission from every artist whose songs compose a medley due to royalties issues.[4] He acknowledged some influence of Spike Jones in the medleys, such as the sound effects.[5]

Four of Yankovic's polka medleys—"Hooked on Polkas", "Polka Power!", "The Hamilton Polka", and "Polkamania!" —have been released as singles (either in international markets or domestically). "Polka Your Eyes Out" and "Polkas on 45" were also the only polkas to appear on a greatest hits album while "Polka Face" and "Polkamania!" are the only polkas to have official videos released for them that are not clips of the original songs' music videos.

In each medley, royalties are paid out to original songwriters according to the percentage of the medley directly attributable to them. What remains is then listed as "Ear Booker Polka" or various other titles so that it may be attributed to Yankovic himself.[6]

  1. ^ Padgett, Ray (2017). Cover me : the stories behind the greatest cover songs of all time. New York. pp. 130–138. ISBN 978-1-4549-2250-6. OCLC 978537907.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ a b Moss, Corey (2006-09-26). "Track By Track: In Weird Al's Lynwood, Green Day's 'Idiot' Is Canadian". MTV Networks. Archived from the original on October 26, 2006. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
  3. ^ Watercutter, Angela (2011-06-20). "Alpocalypse Now: 'Weird Al' Yankovic Says 'Twitter Saved My Album'". Wired. Retrieved 2011-06-20.
  4. ^ ""Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ask Al Archive". Weirdal.com. December 1998. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  5. ^ ""Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ask Al Archive". Weirdal.com. June 1999. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  6. ^ ""Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ask Al Archive". Weirdal.com. August 1999. Retrieved 2024-07-20.