World of Weird Al Yankovic

For all of the folks here who collect Al rarities, I thought I'd go through THIS list...
http://dmdb.org/discographies/al.unr.html
...and point out the demos on there currently in circulation!

Okay - so these are the ones you can get your hands on mostly through illicit means as of mid-December 2011...

* Belvedere Cruising
* Dr. D Superstar - excerpt used as a commercial bumper
* School Cafeteria - bedroom version
* Leisure Suit Serenade
* Cheerios, Apple Jacks, Cheerios
* Nobody Here But Us Frogs
* Dead Car Battery Blues
* Mr. Frump In The Iron Lung - original demo, take 1
* Mr. Frump In The Iron Lung - original demo, take 2 [limited circulation?]
* Crampton Comes Alive - the version on that list that aired 09/25/77
* Hit Me With A Rock - new version
* Never Met A Person Who's As Wonderful As Me
* American Slob - band version
* The Beverly Hillbillies Miss You
* Belvedere Cruisin' '78
* You Don't Take Your Showers
* My Bologna - Capitol single A-side
* More Songs About Food - outtake from the bathroom sessions
* School Cafeteria - Capitol single B-side
* Baby Likes Burping
* Gotta Boogie - original demo [NOT the same as the EP version by any means, despite what the link above says]
* Won't Eat Prunes Again - the ACTUAL submitted recording with a band, not the Dr. D solo performance often mislabeled as a demo... I unearthed this in someone's web directory; before that, it was uncirculated??
* It's Still Billy Joel To Me
* Miniature Golf - with Damaskas and the Barneses, seems to be missing a chunk?
* Yoda - demo
* Mr. Frump In The Iron Lung - EP version
* Happy Birthday - EP version
* I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead - studio demo
* Stop Draggin' My Car Around - demo take 1
* Stop Draggin' My Car Around - demo take 2
* Stop Draggin' My Car Around - demo take 3
* Pac Man
* The Check's In The Mail - demo
* I Love Rocky Road - demo

And here are the tracks STILL unavailable after all these years, but could possibly turn up in the future....

* American Slob - solo version
* Psycho
* Hit Me With A Rock - alleged original version
* Number One With A Bullet - IIRC, a certain accordion man blocked Vince Sanchez from giving this to a fan a couple years back? o_O
* Cycletron (Nature Trail To Hell)
* Mr. Frump In The Iron Lung - guitar version
* Orgy On My Own - solo version
* You Light Up My Life - the circulating version is a Dr. Demento performance, rather than the home-taped recording
* It's Still Billy Joel To Me - re-recorded version
* Orgy On My Own - keyboard version
* Robert Hilburn - with Damaskas
* I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead - home demo
* Yoda - original studio version
* The Ballad of Chuck & Diane - demo take 1
* The Ballad of Chuck & Diane - demo take 2
* The Ballad of Chuck & Diane - demo take 3

Yup. Still quite a few we haven't heard (including, of course, the most elusive song which needs no mention), but we still have a hell of a lot.

So there is a "Won't Eat Prunes Again" demo that differs from the one that is just Al and an accordion? Why, wherever would one find such a recording?

How do you know there's a "keyboard version" of Orgy On My Own? I thought we knew nothing about it. Also, how is it known that there are three Ballad of Chuck and Diane recordings? I never heard that the parody version was ever actually recorded. One more question - what are Number One With A Bullet and Cycletron?

Well it's a good guess there was at least a demo version since the entire first album was demoed. That is the only one we haven't heard. And id like to know more about this vince Sanchez fella, he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth, he's never mentioned in anything or seen in anything like behind the music or biography. Did they have a falling out?

I'll second Jon's question about "Orgy On My Own"--wasn't it only performed once?

It was one of Al's coffee shop songs, so we dont really know how many times it was performed. You may be thinking of when Jon said he may have played it with Al once. I dont even know how we found out about this song since it was performed before he had a following

I still think it'd be awesome if we got to hear Al's personal demos of the originals before they get to his band...

I remember reading somewhere that there were demos of Buckingham Blues from when it was still a Jack And Dianne parody. I would love to hear those.

minnick27 wrote:I dont even know how we found out about this song since it was performed before he had a following

In the Archives section of the weird al website, it had it listed as a performed only once or couple times before song.

mrmeadows - Yes, there is another recording of "Won't Eat Prunes Again." The tape that Al submitted is a full band recording, performed live. It's actually quite a bit better than the version everyone's used to.