Album: Running With Scissors

Artist: “Weird Al” Yankovic

Release Year: 1999

Label: Volcano Entertainment

“Weird Al” Yankovic is: “Weird Al” Yankovic (vocals, accordion, keyboard), Jim West (guitar, banjo, background vocals), Steve Jay (bass, background vocals), Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz (drums, percussion, background vocals)

Additional Personnel: Mary Kay Bergman (vocals), Tress MacNeil (vocals), Marty Rifkin (steel pedal guitar), Pat Sauber (banjo), Tom Sauber (fiddle), Joel Peskin (clarinet), Tom Evans (saxophone), Lee Thornberg (trumpet, trombone), Warren Lueing (trumpet), Tavis Werts (trumpet), Bill Reichenbach (trombone), Dan Regan (trombone), Tommy Johnson (tuba), Ruben Valtierra (keyboards), Kim Bullard (keyboards)

Tracklist:

1. The Saga Begins (D. McLean, A. Yankovic)

2. My Baby’s In Love With Eddie Vedder (A. Yankovic)

3. Pretty Fly (For A Rabbi) (B. Holland, A. Yankovic)

4. Weird Al Show Theme (A. Yankovic)

5. Jerry Springer (E. Robertson, A. Yankovic)

6. Germs (A. Yankovic)

7. Polka Party! (M. Rowbottom, R. Stannard, M. Brown, V. Aadams, G. Halliwell, E. Bunton, M. Chisholm, A. Huffman, J. Lin, S. Nelson, E. Sult, J. Brown, B. Byrd, R. Jones, S. Prakaselmichel, W. Jean, B. Gibb, R. Gibb, M. Gibb, R. Lenhoff, M. Sandberg, D. Volle, G. Camp, P. Delisle, S. Harwell, J. Iannello, Diamond, Horowitz, Yauch, Caldato Jr, J. Abbott, D. Bruce, A. Greco, J. Hamer, A. Holden, N. Hunter, L. Watts, M. Whalley, C. Leach, M. Ciccone, W. Wainwright, L. Atkins, C. Skinner, M. Serletic II, K. Thomas, K. Cadogan, D. Jenkins, A. Salazar, B. Warner, J. White, I. Hanson, J. Hanson, Z. Hanson, J. Wozniak, D. Wilson, A. Yankovic)

8. Your Horoscope For Today (A. Yankovic)

9. It’s All About the Pentiums (S. Combs, Notorious B.I.G., S. Jacobs, J. Phillips, D. Styles, K. Jones, D. Angelettie, L. Laurie, T. Etlinger, A. Yankovic)

10. Truck Drivin’ Song (A. Yankovic)

11. Grapefruit Diet (S. Perry, A. Yankovic)

12. Albuquerque (A. Yankovic)

Lyrics:

This particular disc contains parodies of “American Pie” (Don MacLean), “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” (The Offspring), “One Week” (Barenaked Ladies), “It’s All About the Benjamins” (Puff Daddy), and “Zoot Suit Riot” (Cherry Poppin’ Daddies). It also has a polka which contains songs from various artists popular at the time, including the Spice Girls and Semisonic. The original songs on the album (basically, every even-numbered song on the album) have funny concepts to them, but on some (such as “Truck Drivin’ Song”), don’t deliver as they should. Overall though, Al’s parodies are clever, original, and funny.

Music:

It’s hard to comment on Al’s music. For the most part, it’s a replica of the other songs that he’s making a parody of. If it’s not that, it’s almost certainly set to some variation of polka music. Nothing to great, but it gets the job done.

Highlights:

The funniest song on this album, the first few times, is “Albuquerque”, but after a while, it does get a little old. “Pretty Fly (For A Rabbi)” is also a very good song, and Weird Al manages to use this song without insulting the Jewish religion. “The Saga Begins” is the best-known track on this album, and is also very solid. A good album overall.

Overall:

Considered by many to be one of Weird Al’s finest, it contains parodies of many of the popular songs of the era, and a clever polka combining a bunch of different songs under one title. This also contains the 11-minute adventure “Albuquerque”, considered by many to be both obnoxiously long and hilariously funny. A true Weird Al album.

FarSight37's Score: 91%