World of Weird Al Yankovic

I'm in the "formerly clueless about Hamilton" camp, but I really dig the polka! As others have said, I know enough history to be able to follow it, and I know just enough about the *musical* Hamilton to be dangerous, especially after YouTubing many of the songs from the soundtrack over the last couple days! It's an extremely fun polka with great transitions and moments, and I already have snippets of it stuck in my head that won't leave. (A good thing!) This will be in heavy rotation with me for awhile.

Although there is one bit I don't quite get in the "Schuyler Sisters" section where there's a PPFFFT!! sound after they say Peggy's name. What's the joke there?

Hamilton is wholly a mystery to me, but I like and have bought the song. I never know the source material anyway, having stopped listening to chart music in about 1981 so it's no stretch for me to just enjoy what Al does for its own sake

mrmeadows wrote:Although there is one bit I don't quite get in the "Schuyler Sisters" section where there's a PPFFFT!! sound after they say Peggy's name. What's the joke there?

Historically there were three Schuyler sisters. Angelica and Eliza played a big part in Alexander Hamilton's life and are a big part of the musical. Peggy not so much historically. In the musical this song (and line) are her only appearance. To quote LMM "Poor Peggy - she doesn't stick around the story long enough to merit a musical motif. She married rich and died young, in case you're wondering where she is in Act Two".

dansachs wrote: Historically there were three Schuyler sisters. Angelica and Eliza played a big part in Alexander Hamilton's life and are a big part of the musical. Peggy not so much historically. In the musical this song (and line) are her only appearance. To quote LMM "Poor Peggy - she doesn't stick around the story long enough to merit a musical motif. She married rich and died young, in case you're wondering where she is in Act Two".

Thanks for the explanation! Figured it must have been something like that, but appreciate the context now.

Worth noting that "and Peggy" has practically reached meme status, probably due to its humorous/offbeat placement in The Schuyler Sisters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHdV6ZDTnGA&t=12s

This was amazing.
Putting the hits from one musical together in polka form, paying tribute to someone who himself has been a lifelong Weird Al fan, I mean this is just such an all around winner. It reminds me most of Bohemian Polka in terms of what Al has done here.

Thank you, Al.
With your first release post-Squeeze Box, you have hit a home run.

Great polka! Quite good indeed. I'm still hoping they stick to not doing any polkas on the tour though. I pretty sure they'll end up doing it now, nothing more fun for bands then performing fresh music but I'd still rather hear older originals. Really like the new polka, made me laugh pretty hard, Al never loses his magical touch.

As someone who has become a huge fan of the play in the last year and saw it in July in Chicago, I am in awe. Part of me would love to see him do this live, but the more realistic part says that it would go over the heads of a good chunk of the audience, those who have only heard of the play but have neither seen it or heard the soundtrack.

Actually, Al just confirmed he won't be playing it on the tour. From a RollingStone article:

Are you going to play it live on the tour?

Yankovic: Nooooo. When I was arranging I was like, "I'm not going to play this live. I'm not going to be on Broadway doing eight shows a week, so I'm just going to make this impossibly complex and it'll just be a great recording and I'm never going to play it live."

Miranda: It's the Radiohead album of polka medleys. It's designed to be unplayable!

(Full article: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/feat ... ka-w517343" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

I guess it's just got a bit too much going on. I mean, Washington on Your Side has incredibly fast-paced harmonized lyrics that would be tough to pull off live. This song is the new Hardware Store

As I type this, the song is #8 on the iTunes charts! This song could be Al's first polka to chart on the Billboard Hot 100!