Polka Party! (album)

Polka Party!
Studio Album by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Released	October 21, 1986
Recorded	April 1986 - September 1986
Length	34:07
Format	Vinyl, Cassette, CD
Record Label	Rock 'n' Roll Records / Scotti Brothers
Catalog Number	FZ 40520 (Vinyl) (first release)
Producer	Rick Derringer
Lead Single	Living With A Hernia
Previous Album	Dare To Be Stupid
Next Album	Even Worse

Cover in other countries

Polka Party! is Weird Al's fourth studio album released in 1986. The album sold terribly, and is generally considered by his fans to be one of his worst albums. It nearly destroyed Al's career as well. The album created 2 singles, Living With A Hernia and Christmas At Ground Zero. The album was originally released on Vinyl, Cassette and CD making it the first Weird Al record to be released on CD the same year it came out, with the last three albums being re-issued on CD later (with the exception of Dare To Be Stupid, which was released on CD a few months prior). The album was re-issued in 1999 on CD by Volcano Records.

Polka Party was a commercial failure. It received mixed reviews, and did not receive a Gold nor Platinum award from the RIAA. The album only got a 177 spot on the Billboard 100 at its peak, with even the lead single, Living With a Hernia, charting poorly as well.

The music on Polka Party is made upon parodies and style parodies of pop and rock music of the 80s.There are five originals, 4 parodies and 1 polka medley, adding up to a total of ten, which is the lowest track count on any of Weird Al's studio albums.

Singles

1. Living With A Hernia
2. Christmas At Ground Zero

Tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Parody of	Length
1.	"Living With A Hernia"	Dan Hartman, Charlie Midnight, "Weird Al" Yankovic	Living In America by James Brown	3:20
2.	"Dog Eat Dog"	Yankovic	Style parody of Talking Heads	3:42
3.	"Addicted To Spuds"	Robert Palmer, Yankovic	Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer	3:50
4.	"One Of Those Days"	Yankovic	Original	3:18
5.	"Polka Party!"		Can be found here.	3:15
6.	"Here's Johnny"	Peter Wolf, Ina Wolf, Yankovic	Who's Johnny by EI DeBarge	3:24
7.	"Don't Wear Those Shoes"	Yankovic	Intro is style parody of The Kinks, rest is original	3:36
8.	"Toothless People"	Daryl Hall, Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, Yankovic	Ruthless People by Mick Jagger	3:23
9.	"Good Enough For Now"	Yankovic	Style parody of country love songs	3:03
10.	"Christmas At Ground Zero"	Yankovic	Style parody of Christmas Carols	3:09

Personnel

• "Weird Al" Yankovic – Accordion, Keyboards, Vocals, Background Vocals
• Rick Derringer – Guitar
• Steve Jay – Banjo, Bass, Background
• Jim West – Guitar, Background Vocals
• Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz – Percussion, Drums
• Tony Papa – Engineer
• Bill Anderson – Tenor Saxophone
• Sonny Burke – Piano
• James Cox – Guitar Synthesizer
• Dennis Fetchet – Fiddle
• Gary Herbig – Clarinet, Saxophone
• Tommy Johnson – Tuba
• Warren Luening – Trumpet
• Joel Peskin – Clarinet
• Lisa Popeil – Background Vocals
• Pat Regan – Synthesizer
• John Roarke – Voices
• The Waters Sisters – Background Vocals

Production

• Production - Rick Derringer
• Management - Jay Levey Associates

Trivia

• This is Weird Al's worst selling album.
• The chord Al is playing on the album cover is an F.
• All of the songs on this album are longer than 3 minutes but less than 4 minutes.
• The CD reissue cuts out the back cover for the sake of a generic black background with white text.

See Also

• MySpace Music
• Buy:
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  • iTunes ($9.90)

Studio Albums

"Weird Al" Yankovic (1983) • "Weird Al" Yankovic In 3-D (1984) • Dare To Be Stupid (1985) • Polka Party! (1986) • Even Worse (1988) • Peter and the Wolf (1988) • UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989) • Off The Deep End (1992) • Alapalooza (1993) • Bad Hair Day (1996) • Running With Scissors (1999) • Poodle Hat (2003) • Straight Outta Lynwood (2006) • Alpocalypse (2011) • Mandatory Fun (2014) •