Generic Al Blather 5.0

[JEDM]

I think this is the topic for "Wordle".

[CatraDhtem]

I wasn't sure where to post this, since it involves three different albums and it didn't seem like it should get a whole new topic over in the "Music" section. If a mod can think of a better place to move this to, by all means.


This is just a heads up that according to both Amazon and FYE, three Al albums--"Polka Party!", the "UHF" soundtrack, and "The TV Album"--are now out of print. Not merely backordered, mind you, I mean completely unavailable.

I have no idea if this is temporary or what, and I wanted to make sure I got confirmation from more than one company before I said anything. Deep down, I was kinda hoping this meant we were going to see something like a "UHF: 20th Anniversary" reissue of the CD, but that still wouldn't explain the other two.

So for right now, if any of these three CDs are still missing from your collection, you might want to grab them as soon as you can. All three have yet to go Gold (and I don't know if that had anything to do with this, but it seems possible), and I don't know if buying remaining copies at stores will help that at all, since I believe the RIAA counts units that are shipped as opposed to units sold (if someone has a better understanding of that process, please feel free to chime in). If anything else, I believe Al will still get his due royalties from new copies bought in stores (as opposed to used copies or on eBay, etc.). And of course, all three albums are still available on iTunes et al, and sales there will count toward their RIAA statuses.

I've got a little more research to do first, but later tonight I'll post a message over in the Rock Hall blog listing online stores that still claim to have copies in stock.

[Orthography Enthusiast]

What a loser that Weird Al is. Only 23 years, and his least-successful album is out of print already.

BTW, it looks as though it can still be bought via weirdal.com.

[stupidsurgeon27]

Hmmm. I think I'm gonna have to remind my friend, Michael, about that. Those UHF and Polka Party are the two albums he's still missing from his collection.

[TMBJon]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not the first time the UHF Soundtrack went out of print. I remember in 1997 or so spending the entire summer trying to track down the two Weird Al albums I didn't have yet, Peter & The Wolf and the UHF Soundtrack. Believe it or not, I was able to find P&TW more easily than I was UHF. P&TW was available at a Tower Records in Northeast Philly, whereas some local record shop had to special order UHF for me.
Then a few years later (I think around the time Al switched from Scotti Bros to Volcano), I saw UHF all over the place in the stores.

[Cohocat]

Hm...

[CatraDhtem]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not the first time the UHF Soundtrack went out of print. I remember in 1997 or so spending the entire summer trying to track down the two Weird Al albums I didn't have yet, Peter & The Wolf and the UHF Soundtrack. Believe it or not, I was able to find P&TW more easily than I was UHF. P&TW was available at a Tower Records in Northeast Philly, whereas some local record shop had to special order UHF for me.
Then a few years later (I think around the time Al switched from Scotti Bros to Volcano), I saw UHF all over the place in the stores.

There was only one time where "UHF" was really out of print, between 1990 and 1992 as a result of Scotti Bros. switching distribution from CBS to BMG, and even then there were probably still some copies floating around from the initial 1989 pressing to fill that void. For whatever reason, "UHF" was reissued an entire year after the rest of Al's catalog had been.

As far as I know, the two subsequent transitions, Scotti jumping from BMG to WEA in 1996 and then being bought out by Volcano around 1998, happened pretty seamlessly, so it's doubtful there was a time where Al's releases were completely unavailable. I mean, the fact that "UHF" was still orderable kinda proves that. And of course, with each change at the label there was another wave of reissues and renewed retail presence, and always of the entire catalog (sans the "UHF" example at the top), so even then there's almost never been a time where only certain Al titles were discontinued.

But yeah, Weirdal.com still has some copies of the albums, as does DeepDiscount. As I said, I'll try to get a complete list posted later tonight on the blog.

[minnick27]

Whats weird about those three albums going out of print is they are the only ones that my local Borders ever has on the shelf. They have never had copies of SOL and very few of PH.

[Grom]

What a loser that Weird Al is. Only 23 years, and his least-successful album is out of print already.

BTW, it looks as though it can still be bought via weirdal.com.

More accurately, "Not even 23 years..."

[wayword]

There are some great tunes on these albums-- I'd better get my copies soon (I've been listening to them on YouTube). Thanks for the head's up!