Talk:Alapalooza

Someone left the cake out in the rain

'some also believe it to be a parody of "Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain" by Barry Manilow' Does this song actually exist, or has this person just confused Barry Manilow with Richard Harris? LeeWilson 15:03, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

No such song actually exists. User:TheLazenby

Proposed Mergers

Given that Achy Breaky Song was released as a single, its probably not a good candidate for a merger, since singles are generally given their own article. Expanding it would be a better solution. If there are good reasons for the merger, then repropose it and put them on their relevant discussion pages. Orchid Righteous 14:40, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Traffic Jam

Definitely NOT a style parody of "Freeze Frame", though FF is similar to "Let's Go Crazy." Al's song is very similar to LGC, enough that it seems he snuck in an unnoticed Prince parody, since Prince was always against being spoofed by Al.

She Never Told Me She Was A Mime

This saxophone driven song isn't even remotely similar to Aerosmith's "Dude Looks like a Lady", much less is it a style parody of that work. Without a clearly audible musical link (as with "Trigger Happy" - which is undenaibly a Beach Boys style parody), or a verifiable statement from the author to confirm the accuracy of this statement, the assertion that "She Never Told Me She was a Mime" is a style parody of "Dude Looks like a Lady" appears to reflect the author's own theory, and not any evidence. As such, this statement should be removed.

Talk Soup and Waffle King

They can't both be style parodies of Sledgehammer...I seriously doubt Al would do two style parodies of the same song on the same album. My doubts aren't evidence, of course. If I had to pick one, I'd say that Talk Soup has the musical link. I won't even venture a guess as to what Waffle King might otherwise be a style parody of, if anything, however. Is there a verifiable statement from Al on this issue? Toddrunner 13:42, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Both songs seem to "style-parody" late 80's/early 90's Peter Gabriel at large. Therefore, it's possible that both songs sound similar to both "Sledgehammer" and "Steam". Although, to examine them closely, "Steam" actually has less in common with either Al song than "Slegehammer", which--at at the duration point of 3:10 into the song--expires the final chorus and begins an extended outro. This effectively renders two distinct musical segments. "Waffle King" more clearly resembles the verse/chorus segment of "Sledgehammer" (due most noticeably to the flute-synth flourish, as well as the abbreviated, upper-registered, crescendo-esque chord changes) while "Talk Soup's" descending sax lines and female backing vocals more closely resemble "Sledgehammer's" outro segment. (It might also be worth mentioning that "Talk Soup" and "Sledgehammer" share a virtually identical snare-emphasis on the backbeat, which is possibly the most glaring similarity "Sledgehammer" shares with either song.) Therefore, while I agree with Toddrunner's sentiment that it seems odd for Al to do two style-parodies of the same song, it seems as if "Sledgehammer" is sufficiently dynamic enough that Al has done exactly that. Although, in Al's defense (should one presume that this action calls for defending), "Talk Soup's" faster tempo and more upbeat, melodic sax and backing vox lines seem to make it a less specific, less singular style parody than "Waffle King" (despite the aforementioned back-beat). The article mentions "Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley as an influence (a relationship probably more atmospheric than musical--perhaps evoked by the lyrical topic) but its more upbeat, busier melody are more reminiscent of Huey Lewis and the News.

Quite possibly, Al may have been influenced by the 1991 novel American Psycho, wherein the 'prantagonist' discusses the music he enjoys with his pending murder victims--most notably Genesis and Huey Lewis and the News. Phil Collins is discussed at great length as being the more commercially accessible presence in Genesis, while Peter Gabriel is never mentioned. The fact that Al wrote two songs in "style parody" tribute to one Peter Gabriel song (one of which sharing an influence with Huey Lewis) may be his way of promoting Peter Gabriel's legacy as being more influential than Phil Collins while being equally worthy of mainstream commercial success. This is, of course, a modest stretch, but would be worth addressing with with Al. R.Carey174.57.24.142 (talk) 00:28, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

@R.Carey, Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" was more the direct influence for Al's "When I Was Your Age" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.105.96.171 (talk) 20:31, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

Livin' in the Fridge

I've seen a part of a supposed music video of Livin' in the Fridge but never the whole thing. Can someone please explain this? Starhood` 20:22, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

• The music video was a short segment made for the 'Weird Al' Show. There was also one for Lasagna. I created a wiki page for "Living in the Firdge."--Gen. Quon 18:41, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Waffle King = "Sledgehammer" Talk Soup = "Superstition"

"Waffle King" is an obvious style parody of "Sledgehammer" because at roughly 0:31 there is a sound similar to that used in the "Sledgehammer's" 'musical intermission'. Kind of hard to explain the sound. Listen for yourself if you'd like.

"Talk Soup" is a obvious style parody of "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder as it uses the same trumpet line throughout the song.

Please stop changing these. It is highly unlikely that Yankovic would record two Peter Gabriel style parodies, or visa versa.--Gen. Quon (talk) 14:41, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

"Waffle King" is very obviously, musically, a parody of "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel. The "sound" you are refering to is a kind of panpipe. The full album version of "Sledgehammer" starts with the sound and it appears throughout the chorus. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.203.191.247 (talk) 15:10, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree with the "Waffle King" comments. I think it should be added to the article. Freddicus (talk) 18:04, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I disagree in part, "Waffle King" is also a musical parody of "Close (to the Edit)" by The Art of Noise. In fact it directly samples "Close (to the edit)", specifically the "dum dum dum do dum" vocal beat that begins at 0:06. Walterego (talk) 09:36, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, there are similarities, and yes I recall a website claimed he sampled that, but the fact remains a) He's never confirmed a sample b) He never gave credit for a sample and c) the parts are similar, but not identical.--99.179.75.218 (talk) 21:36, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, the parts are similar, but not the same. I agree with mentioning the similarity, but it isn't a direct sample.--76.246.176.32 (talk) 02:14, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Scent?

How does the center of the CD represent scent?

• Somebody proposed that all of the CD's after Alapalooza represent 1 of the 5 scents. This can't be right because there are only four CD's with Al on the CD itself. (Alapalooza, Bad Hair Day, Running With Scissors, & Poodle Hat). I think it's just someone P.O.V. because I've never heard this claim before. And since there isn't a source, I'm going to remove it if no one responds.Gen. Quon 21:26, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
  • It's something that someone brought up while on line during a meet and greet. I left before Al presumably gave an answer, but I found it of interest. The double-sided disc is what prevents Al from appearing on the Straight Outta Lynwood disc. It's fair to remove it per your reasons. Hopefully, one day Al can back it up with a fair source. Socby19 05:25, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Young Dumb and Ugly

For the longest while it has been established the "YD&U" was an "AC/DC" style parody. However, every once and while someone will change it to Aerosmith, Led Zepplin, Metallica, KISS, and now Guns 'N Roses. I understand there might be simiarities, but I doubt it is a Guns 'N Roses knock-off. I don't mean to sound mean, but we can't have everyone changing the style parody to what they think it is.--Gen. Quon (talk) 03:02, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

NOW we get an explanation as to the GNR reference removal. --Ryanasaurus0077 (talk) 23:06, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

album discontinued

I removed the line regarding the album being discontinued as of August 2009. I don't see any evidence of this one any websites. in fact, Al's site shows that all of his albums are available for sale. there is a similar comment posted on pages for some of Al's other albums. Lawnboy1977 (talk) 00:29, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Easter Egg?

Apparently there's a "circular link" (a link that goes to the same page it's on, refreshing the page) on here. Click on the wikilink to "Achy Breaky Song" and the page linked to redirects here. TheGreenMartian (talk) 22:23, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Alapalooza/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: ThaddeusB (talk · contribs) 04:02, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

Hello. I will be conducting this review. I am reading the article now and will post my initial comments sometime tomorrow. --ThaddeusB (talk) 04:02, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

Initial comments

The way I look at writing an article, there are three major components: the content (i.e. all the facts), NPOV, and the prose. My initial thought is that the content and NPOV are in good shape, but the prose needs some work. In the past, when I've listed specific complaints off the bat people have been overwhelmed thinking they article was well short, when actually not a lot of work was needed. As such, I will start by outlining what I belive to be the shortcomings of the prose in general terms:

• In the lead, there are a few sentences with three or four mostly unrelated clauses that make it hard to understand.
• In the body, there are one or two sentences which lack grammatical context (i.e. contain a pronoun or "this" with unclear meaning.
• Throughout, the distinction between the music collection and the video collection is hard to follow. That is, I am unsure if some sentences are about the songs or the videos for the songs.

Most likely, a careful rereading of the article now that its been a bit since you first wrote it will make what I'm talking about apparent.

I don't think there is a huge amount of work left to be done to achieve GA status, but will hold off on a thorough review until an attempt at addressing the prose through copyediting has been made. I look forward to working with you to make this a GA. --ThaddeusB (talk) 23:41, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

Haha, it's tough to overwhelm me on GA, but I appreciate your approach and I believe that a review should always be done in whatever style makes the reviewer most comfortable. I went through the article and of course you are right; the article I read seemed a lot better after I spent several hours working on it and just wanted to be done with it for the day then it does now, haha. I went through the whole thing specifically looking for (and hopefully addressing) the issues listed above, but also doing a general copyedit to (again hopefully) make the rest of your job easier. One thing I wasn't sure about, however, was where the distinction between the album and the video collection was blurry. Some specific examples here would probably help me clear up any issues (it's one of those things as the writer, I guess, where it's obvious to me what I'm referring to, so I could be not catching it). Thanks for the review, looking forward to seeing more! Canadian Paul 17:56, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Your copyedit cleared up the confusing video/songs parts. I've now done my own copyedit, which hopefully improves things a bit more. :) I have a few questions/requested tweaks remaining:

• "Yankovic's 1992 album Off the Deep End, his best-selling album since 1984's "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D, had revived his career and displayed his versatility after the commercial failures of his 1986 work Polka Party! and his feature film UHF." What do mean by "versatility"? "Revived" is self-evident but how a commercial success shows versatility needs explained or removed.
• "...B-side to Off the Deep End's "Smells Like Nirvana", "just in case there..." - the back to back quotes (for different reasons) is perhaps a bit confusing
• "He recorded all of his original tracks, except "Talk Soup" and "Harvey the Wonder Hamster", by the end of 1992 and recorded most of the rest in July 1993" - "most the rest" appears to refer grammatically to original tracks, but I'm not sure if that is what was intended. If so, what doe sit mean to say "most of the rest" when referring to only two tracks? If not, clarification is needed
• "For the music video Yankovic chose Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund to produce a claymation feature that parodied scenes from the movie" "chose ... to produce" is awkward for me. Perhaps a clarification is in order - did Yankovic come up with the concept and just ask for help making it happen or was more creative freedom given? Since the video was nominated for a Grammy, it is probably an important distinction to make.
• "Having always wanted to write a tribute to The Flintstones" - this is a very minor point, but do you mean the show (which is what the wikilink points to) or the characters form the show. If the former, it should be italic.
• In the paragraph that starts "The album's polka medley..." most of the text is about "Livin' in the Fridge". As is, it would be better for the polka song sentence to come last as to not give the impression it is a topic sentence. However, it might also be a good idea to explain why you write "the album's polka medley" as if it is a normal thing (I realize it is a normal thing for Weird Al, but the reader might not), especially considering the "medley" has only one song in it.
• Entertainment Weekly praised the videos for "Jurassic Park" and "Bedrock Anthem", but felt that overall Alapalooza: the Videos was average, referring to the claymation video for the former as "clever but toothless" - I'm not sure how "clever but toothless" is consistent with "praised"; perhaps a reworking of the material is in order

Other than that, the article looks good. The article is kinda on the short side, but seems to cover everything that needs covered. (I will do some basic research to verify this point before passing the article.) --ThaddeusB (talk) 23:56, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

Okay, I think I took care of them all:

1. Replaced "versatility" with a direct quote that (hopefully) better explains why the album was successful.
2. Added a word to separate the quotes.
3. That was a tough one to reword, but hopefully I got it this time.
4. Dug up a source that clarifies this.
5. Fixed.
6. Switched it around and added a new source to back up its ubiquitousness on his albums. Hopefully the Wikilink is sufficient for explaining what a polka medley is rather than having to tack that explanation on there?
7. Yeah you're right, I was overplaying the review a bit there. Reworded.

Also, under "Parodies", either I get an extra "]" at the end of the Jurassic Park novel wikilink, or else it's not wikilinked and I can't seem to figure out how to fix that... anyhow, thanks again for your in-depth review of the article! Please let me know if anything else needs to be done! Canadian Paul 15:26, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

All of my concerns have been addressed. I also fixed the novel's ikwilink problem (at least in Firefox). Now on to the formal review... --ThaddeusB (talk) 05:36, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Formal review

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

---

All my concerns prose have been addressed, but my research did turn up one thing the article is missing one one very minor concern (see below)

1. Is it reasonably well written?

   A. Prose quality:

   B. MoS compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists:

2. Is it factually accurate and verifiable?

   A. References to sources:

   Is it normal to include the user generated Sputnikmusic rating in the review box? (I honestly don't know the answer to this Q.)

   B. Citation of reliable sources where necessary:

   C. No original research:

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. Major aspects:

   For the most part, the article does an impressive job of making a strong article out of sparse source material. However, in my research I did find there was a "Alapaloza tour" to support the album. That should probably be covered in the article - one short paragraph would be sufficient. Such material can be combined with other promotional efforts, if any are turned up.

   B. Focused:

4. Is it neutral?

   Fair representation without bias:

5. Is it stable?

   No edit wars, etc:

6. Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?

   A. Images are copyright tagged, and non-free images have fair use rationales:

   B. Images are provided where possible and appropriate, with suitable captions:

   I suppose a picture of Weird Al could be added, but I don't feel it is necessary

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail:

   Almost there --ThaddeusB (talk) 05:36, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Regarding sputnikmusic, the reason I used it was just because I borrowed the format of another Yankovic GA Off the Deep End. I noticed, however, that that review was done almost two years ago, so perhaps the standards for sourcing have changed since then and I can't find anything concrete. According to Wikipedia:WikiProject Albums/Review sites, sputnikmusic is good for "staff and emeritus reviews only", which I would surmise to mean that the "User opinion" section doesn't count. That, plus the fact that I don't even use the source in the body of the article, has led me to just cut it out as superfluous.

Regarding the "Alapalooza Tour", I left that out because I'm not entirely certain how much of a formal tour there actually was. He definitely had concert dates after the release of the album, but that's how an artist makes their money and, between Google, News Archives, and Highbeam Research, I haven't encountered any reliable sources that discuss the tour as an entity. There are set lists and tour dates, but not on any really reliable sources. This source suggests that the "Alapalooza Tour" was just a loose collection of concert dates that happened to occur in the year following the release of the album. Even Weird Al's own site doesn't refer to the associated sets (or anything else) as an "Alapalooza Tour", which makes me think that that term is just a fan creation that makes it easy to talk about those particular tour dates. I'll keep looking, but I haven't seen any mention of the tour aside from a very small number of mentions in newspapers (most likely, again, used for the ease of referring to his activities at the time) and on forums, fan sites, and other unreliable sources. Without even official status from Yankovic himself, however, I'm worried that any reference to an "Alapalooza Tour" might border on original research. For example, there's a poster on ebay that mentions the "Alapalooza Tour" but, without official status from Yankovic, it's impossible to tell whether or not that was just made up by the promoter for various reasons. Canadian Paul 15:29, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

I am satisfied by your explanation as to why you left the info out. I had seen some newspaper articles saying Yankovic was in town for his Alapalooza Tour, and assumed they knew what they were talking about. From the info you provided, it does appear to be an informal tour. Of course, if you do find something more definitive add it to the article.

I did notice that the album cover is lacking alt text, which I forgot to check earlier. Once that is handled I will pass the article. --ThaddeusB (talk) 04:57, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

Alt text is always tricky... I'm never sure exactly what is needed... I've given it a shot though, what do you think? Canadian Paul 16:02, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

Looks good to me (I'm no expert at ALT text either). Article passed. --ThaddeusB (talk) 18:23, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Alapalooza. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131017224249/http://www.mania.com/more-little-film-big-big-screen_article_2108.html to http://www.mania.com/more-little-film-big-big-screen_article_2108.html
• Added {{dead link}} tag to http://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=Alapalooza&artist=%22Weird%20Al%22%20Yankovic&format=&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2009&sort=Artist&perPage=25

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

Y An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 10:08, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

Vandalism

There has been serious vandalism on this page. We need to protect it from vandalism. The track listing page is okay, but the rest is heavily vandalized by an unregistered editor. Theobegley2013 (talk) 14:21, 16 September 2023 (UTC)