Poodle Hat

Untitled

Poodle Hat is the eleventh album by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It was released on May 20 2003.

Track listing

1. "Couch Potato" (Jeffrey Bass, Marshall Mathers, Luis Edgardo Resto) – 4:18
   • Parody of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem
2. "Hardware Store" (Yankovic) – 3:45
   • Possible style parody of "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)"
3. "Trash Day" (Chuck Brown, Cornell Haynes, Pharrell Williams) – 3:12
   • Parody of "Hot in Herre" by Nelly.
4. "Party At The Leper Colony" (Yankovic) – 3:38
   • Style parody of "Not Fade Away" first performed by Buddy Holly.
5. "Angry White Boy Polka" – 5:04
   • Polka medley of angry white boy music (metal, alternative, rap), featuring:
     • "Last Resort" by Papa Roach
     • "Chop Suey!" by System of a Down
     • "Get Free" by The Vines
     • "Hate to Say I Told You So" by The Hives
     • "Fell in Love with a Girl" by The White Stripes
     • "Last Nite" by The Strokes
     • "Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed
     • "Renegades of Funk" by Rage Against the Machine, originally by Afrika Bambaataa
     • "My Way" by Limp Bizkit
     • "Outside" by Staind
     • "Bawitdaba" by Kid Rock
     • "Youth of the Nation" by P.O.D.
     • "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem
6. "Wanna B Ur Lovr" (Yankovic) – 6:14
   • Style parody of "Peaches & Cream" by Beck
7. "A Complicated Song" – 3:39
   • Parody of "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne
8. "Why Does This Always Happen To Me?" (Yankovic) – 4:52
   • Style parody of Ben Folds
9. "Ode To A Superhero" (Billy Joel) – 4:53
   • Parody of "Piano Man" by Billy Joel
10. "Bob" (Yankovic) – 2:29
    • Style parody of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan, every line is a palindrome.
11. "eBay"(Andreas Carlsson, Max Martin) – 3:36
    • Parody of "I Want It That Way" by The Backstreet Boys
12. "Genius In France" (Yankovic) – 8:58
    • Style parody of Frank Zappa. Title is a reference to the Zappa song "In France".

Song descriptions

• "Couch Potato" - about a man's addiction to television.
• "Hardware Store" - a man gets overexcited about the new hardware store in town, maintains this exhilaration for months, camps out all night in anticipation of the grand opening, is the first in the new store's door and quickly lists everything the place has to sell.
• "Trash Day" - about one couple's woes of a dirty apartment the day before the garbage is to be picked up.
• "Party at the Leper Colony" - As the title implies, with a large reference of body-part puns therein.
• "Wanna B Ur Lover" - The singer attempts to woo a woman with an astoundingly long list of pickup lines.
• "A Complicated Song" - Deals with constipation, incest, and decapitation. Reportedly, Al tried to stretch each of these three things into a full song, but failed, so he included all three.
• "Why Does this Always Happen to Me" - Singer laments the fact that whenever there's a massive tragedy, he is personally (sometimes slightly) inconvenienced.
• "Ode To a Superhero" - details the plotline of the 2002 film Spider-Man.
• "Bob" - All of the lines in the song are palindromes, as is the song title.
• "eBay" - about eBay and the crazy things people list on it.

Items he buys or bids on, in the order they are featured in the songs lyrics:

• Used pink bathrobe
• Rare mint snowglobe
• Smurf TV tray
• Pet rock
• ALF alarm clock
• William Shatner's old toupee
• Knick Knacks
• Slightly damaged golf bag
• Beanie Babies new with tag
• Tchotchkes
• Watch
• Dukes of Hazzard ash tray
• Pac-Man Fever lunchbox
• Case of vintage tube socks
• Kleenex used by Dr. Dre
• Farrah Fawcett poster
• PEZ dispenser
• Toaster

Actually searching for many of these phrases on eBay will often result in other phrases from the song appearing in "related searches".

• "Genius in France" - about a man who's considered not very bright in his hometown (presumably in America), but finds himself viewed as funny and smart by the French (title is thought by some to be an indirect reference to the urban legend that the French idolize and worship Jerry Lewis). Includes several injokes and references to Frank Zappa, including a typically Zappa-esque joke about poodles. The song also features the classic Zappa phrase "Great googley-moogley", which comes from "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow Suite" on Apostrophe (') (1974). Also, the opening guitar solo is performed by Dweezil Zappa and sounds like the opening to Frank Zappa's "I'm The Slime" from Over-Nite Sensation

Enhanced CD

The album also comes with an Enhanced CD portion which depicts some of Al's real home videos with him giving a commentary and it contains synchronized lyrics and instrumental and acoustic versions of some songs.

On this Enhanced CD, there is an Easter egg depicting Al with his wife.

Music videos

A music video for "Couch Potato" was to be shot shortly after the album's release, but Eminem denied Al permission to shoot it. A quick video for "Bob" was shot instead and used on the tour and the 2003 edition of Al TV. The video for "Bob" can now be found on the "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection DVD. The video for "Bob" is an obvious take off of the promo video that was shot for D.A. Pennebaker's film of Dylan's first tour of England, including Bob Dylan's song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues", which was included on Pennebaker's film. The song "Bob" also has very many similarities in rhythm and movement of Dylan's song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

Trivia

• The song eBay was actually performed live at eBay Live! 2003. A portion of this performance can be seen at the beginning of the CNBC documentary The eBay Effect: Inside a Worldwide Obsession.

• The song Hardware Store is used in the YTMND fad Stan Sells EVERYTHING. In this fad, Stan, the used ship dealership owner is shown talking very quickly and flailing his arms wildly as the song lists things items he is selling to Guybrush.

• The Song Hardware Store has also been used in the World of Warcraft video "Hardware Store", that can be found uploaded to Youtube and other locations.

Personnel

• "Weird Al" Yankovic - accordion, keyboards, sound effects, vocals, background vocals, clapping, shouts
• Jim West - guitar, mandolin, sound effects, vocals, clapping, shouts
• Steve Jay - bass, banjo, sound effects, vocals, clapping, shouts
• Rubén Valtierra - piano, keyboards
• Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz - drums, percussion, sound effects, vocals, clapping, shouts, laughs
• William K. Anderson - harmonica
• Kim Bullard - keyboards
• DJ Swamp - scratching
• Tom Evans - saxophone
• Tommy Johnson - tuba
• John "Juke" Logan - harmonica
• Warren Luening - trumpet
• Herb Pedersen - banjo
• Joel Peskin - clarinet
• Lisa Popeil - background vocals
• Lee R. Thomburg - trombone, trumpet
• Carmen Twilley - background vocals
• Julia Waters - vocals, background vocals
• Maxine Waters - background vocals
• Bela (Yankovic's pet Poodle, also featured on the album cover) - Barking noises featured in "Genius in France"
• Ben Folds - piano on "Why Does This Always Happen To Me?"
• Dweezil Zappa - opening guitar solo on "Genius in France"

Production

• Producer: Al Yankovic
• Engineers: Tony Papa, Rafael Serrano
• Assistant engineers: Aaron Kaplan, Doug Sanderson, Antony Zeller
• Mixing: Tony Papa
• Mastering: Bernie Grundman
• Arranger: "Weird Al" Yankovic
• Drum programming: Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz
• Design: Nick Gamma, Jackie Murphy
• Photography: Mark Seliger

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2003	The Billboard 200	17
2003	Top Internet Albums	17

Awards

Grammy Awards

Year	Award	Winner
2003	Best Comedy Album	Poodle Hat