World of Weird Al Yankovic

Right. I know he tried and couldn't get permission to do a Led Zep polka, but I wasn't sure if it was for Even Worse or if it was for UHF and then, upon getting denied, switched gears to the Stones.

If--IF--the rumor of a possible all-U2 polka is true, then it had to have been envisioned for "Even Worse." It seems kinda hard to tell now because we're so used to the group, but "The Joshua Tree" was a pretty big rock and roll event when it was released. Even though it was hardly U2's first album, there was still a lot of that "Oooo, who are these mysterious hip new guys?" vibe about them in the U.S. It spawned a number of radio hits and, if you can believe this, the album stayed at #1 longer than "Bad" did that year.

But, and forgive me if someone had brought this up long ago in some other similar thread, it's likely that the biggest reason that EW didn't contain a polka was because Al was still sore from the failure of an album that was identified closely with a polka concept. There was so much about the "Polka Party!" album that didn't work that Al possibly wanted to rethink his album strategy a little.

Perhaps it was the Stones, and he finally ended up getting the go ahead and did it for UHF. Probably not. If it is true, I wonder which song was put on the album instead cause thats one of the best ones for its original content! There should be a ban on negative comments about Polka Party!.

This would be a really interesting question to get Al (or Bermuda, I suppose) to elaborate on sometime... Why was there no polka on Even Worse, and if there was one planned what was it and what happened?

If I remember Ill try and ask at the Keswick next month

I'll see if I can ask either Al or Bermuda at New Brunswick. It would probably be a better question for Bermuda, since I'm sure he'd probably have more time to explain it.

Yankomaniac wrote:There should be a ban on negative comments about Polka Party!.

I agree!!

As for asking Al/Bermuda, I think that's a good idea. I really want to know the story here. I love these "missing song" mysteries.

Maybe they were just trying out something new for this album, since Polka Party bombed and they didn't want to repeat that.

I would believe the Led Zepplin polka theory, because there was a long stretch of time where they were absolutely refusing to license out their music to anyone for anything, so I could see them turning down Al, and Al just didn't bother to try anything else. It's too bad he didn't do something else, because there were a lot of great songs during that period, it probably would have included Rick Astley, George Michael, Guns N' Roses, U2, Europe, Etc.

spmahn wrote:Rick Astley

Yes, a polkroll would be the greatest thing ever.

Just kidding. Don't try it, Weird Al. It's not worth it.