Bad Hair Day - "Weird Al" Yankovic

Yes, it's that time of year again!

More specifically, the early hours of Christmas Day, when I can usually be found wrapping last-minute prezzies all night to a CD by the man called Weird.

I've been carrying on this tradition for so many years now that I'm surprised to find that I've still got any of his albums left. But here it is - Bad Hair Day from 1994. I'd say that it's from his heyday, but Al's heyday seems to have started in the 1980s and still be going strong. Like I said, he's Weird.

The track from this one that everyone remembers is the opening number - Amish Paradise. Funny track, awesome production, but arguably a bit mean-spirited. If the Amish can't hear the song, then it's impossible to laugh with them, which makes it feel like we're laughing at them.

In fact, several songs on here are unusually nasty for the funny singer with the family-friendly image. Since You've Been Gone, I'm So Sick Of You, and The Night Santa Went Crazy are all catchy feel-good numbers about how terrible someone is.

Although the joy is missing from many of the lyrics, it's well in evidence in every tune on here, not least Syndicated Inc. (a parody of Soul Asylum's ironically-entitled Misery) which extols the virtues of syndicated TV shows.

Speaking of which, the second track on here - Everything You Know Is Wrong - really ought to get made into a weekly TV series itself. Just listen to what the plot of one such episode would be:

"I was walkin' to the kitchen for some Golden Grahams,
When I accidentally stepped into an alternate dimension,
And soon I was abducted by some aliens from space,
Who kinda looked like Jamie Farr.

They sucked out my internal organs,
And they took some polaroids,
And said I was a darn good sport,
And as a way of saying thank you,
They offered to transport me back to,
Any point in history that I would care to go.

And so I had them send me back to last Thursday night,
So I could pay my phone bill on time,
Just then the floating disembodied head of
Colonel Sanders started yelling…

[CHORUS] Everything you know is wrong…"

This is one of my all-time favourite songs ever. Please Al, can you write a sequel? I just gotta know what else happens to this guy!

TRACK LISTING:

1. Amish Paradise.
2. Everything You Know Is Wrong.
3. Cavity Search.
4. Callin' In Sick.
5. The Alternative Polka.
6. Since You've Been Gone.
7. Gump.
8. I'm So Sick Of You.
9. Syndicated Inc.
10. I Remember Larry.
11. Phony Calls.
12. The Night Santa Went Crazy.