Bad Hair Day

''Bad Hair Day'' is the ninth studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on March 12, 1996. It was also Yankovic's last studio album for the Scotti Brothers label before it was purchased by Volcano Records in 1999 and his final studio album to be released while he still had his classic look (by 1998, Yankovic had shaved off his mustache, grown his hair out, and gotten laser corrective eye surgery). The album produced an array of hit comedy singles; lead single " Amish Paradise", which lampoons both Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" and the Amish lifestyle, charted at No. 53 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, while " Gump", which parodies "Lump" by the Presidents of the United States of America and the movie '' Forrest Gump'', reached at No. 102.

The musical styles on the album are built around parodies and pastiches of pop and rock music of the mid-1990s, largely targeting alternative rock and hip-hop alike. The album also includes style parodies, imitations of specific artists like They Might Be Giants and Elvis Costello. "Amish Paradise" caused a minor controversy after rapper Coolio expressed distaste at having his song parodied by Yankovic, although the two later made amends.

''Bad Hair Day'' was met with mixed to positive reviews, with many critics praising "Amish Paradise" in particular; "Amish Paradise" went on to become one of Yankovic's best-known singles. The album peaked at No. 14 on the ''Billboard'' 200. ''Bad Hair Day'' sold 1,317,000 copies in the U.S. in 1996 alone, the highest sales tally for any comedy album in a single calendar year since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. ''Bad Hair Day'' was Yankovic's sixth Gold record in the United States, and went on to be certified Double Platinum for sales of over two million copies in the U.S. by the Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA). The album was also certified Platinum in Canada by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA).

Production

Recording

In November 1994, Yankovic entered Santa Monica Sound Recorders in Santa Monica, California to begin the first of the ''Bad Hair Day'' sessions, which he produced himself. Recording with Yankovic were Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, Steve Jay on bass, and Jim West on guitar. The album was recorded in five sessions. The first session started on November 30 and yielded two originals: "Callin' In Sick" and "Everything You Know Is Wrong". The second session started the next day and produced the original songs: "I Remember Larry", " The Night Santa Went Crazy", and "Since You've Been Gone". The third session took place on November 5, 1995, and resulted in the original "I'm So Sick of You" and the parody "Cavity Search". The fourth session yielded "The Alternative Polka" medley, and the two parodies "Gump" and "Phony Calls". The fifth and final recording session produced "Amish Paradise" and "Syndicated Inc.", both of which were parodies.

Originals

"Callin' In Sick" is a style parody of music popular in Seattle, Washington, most notably grunge. "Everything You Know Is Wrong" is a stylistic pastiche of They Might Be Giants. Yankovic explained that he "tried to write a song sort of in their style, but perhaps even a little bit more twisted". For fans of They Might Be Giants, he put "little references in here and there, little allusions to other songs of theirs". Yankovic later admitted that it "is a little bit harder I think to decipher exactly where the inspiration is coming from." The song title is taken from the 1974 Firesign Theatre album of the same name.

"I Remember Larry" is a style parody of Hilly Michaels, and it tells the tale of a neighborhood bully who, after myriad pranks, drives the narrator to kidnap him and leave him for dead in the forest. At the 3:10 mark, the song contains a backmasked message, which when reversed reads, "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands". "The Night Santa Went Crazy" tells the story of Santa snapping, embarking on a killing spree, and eventually being arrested. Originally, the song had a different third verse, differing in the fact that, at the end of the song, Santa is killed by the SWAT team. The "Extra Gory" version was eventually released on the single for "Amish Paradise". Another version was written for the Touring with Scissors tour in 1999, combining elements of the album version and the "Extra Gory" version. "Since You've Been Gone" is a generic doo-wop a cappella track that details a lover's torment after the object of his affections breaks up with him. Yankovic performed most of the vocals himself, and to make sure that he stayed on key, a scratch guitar track was recorded; when the song was mixed, the guitar track was removed. Bassist Steve Jay provides the low voices in the song. Finally, "I'm So Sick of You", a style parody of Elvis Costello in which the singer tells his girlfriend all the things he hates about her.

Parodies and polka

The first parody recorded for the album was "Cavity Search", a parody of U2's hit "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me". The song, which recounts the horror of having to go to the dentist, features the sound of an actual dental drill. To enhance the dental theme of the song, Yankovic called in his actual dentist, who brought a real drill and a human tooth, which the two took turns drilling while recording. The second parody was a pastiche of TLC's hit "Waterfalls" called "Phony Calls", about prank calls. During the bridge, a clip from ''The Simpsons'' second season episode "Blood Feud" is played on top of the music. Because the sound clip was from a preexisting episode, Yankovic noted that "it was a pretty sweet deal for the Simpsons' voice actors – they each got a nice pile of money, and they didn't even have to come to the studio!" Before the call you hear a phone number being dialed. The number is 372-5806, which at the time was guitarist Jim West's home phone number. The next parody recorded for the album was "Gump", a parody of "Lump" by the Presidents of the United States of America. The song recounts the basic plot to the 1994 film '' Forrest Gump'' about a naïve and slow-witted yet athletically prodigious native of Alabama who witnesses, and in some cases influences, some of the defining events of the latter half of the 20th century in the United States. "Gump" was released as the second single from the album, and received a video.

On January 15, 1996, Yankovic began recording the lead single for the album, "Amish Paradise". Yankovic felt that parodying Coolio would pay off, because Coolio had "such an identifiable image that a lot of things could be done ith. He noted, "I like to play around with people that have some- you know, a lot of style as opposed to somebody who's kind of homogonized icand bland and has no personality, and Coolio certainly kind of sticks out in a crowd." Yankovic felt that juxtaposing the original song's "gangsta" themes with the Amish lifestyle would produce a humorous end result. After Yankovic revealed to his label that he would be doing a Coolio parody, they requested that the album artwork for the release also parody Coolio. Yankovic had been toying with the name ''Bad Hair Day'' for a time and felt that he could adequately use the name and lampoon Coolio – who was known for his distinct hair style – at the same time. The final parody recorded for the album, "Syndicated Inc.", is a parody of " Misery" by Soul Asylum, a loving ode to syndicated television.

Much like Yankovic's previous album, ''Bad Hair Day'' features a polka medley of then-current hit songs, " The Alternative Polka". "The Alternative Polka" originally contained the chorus of Weezer's song " Buddy Holly" performed by Yankovic, but the song's writer, Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo, requested its removal just before the album's release. Yankovic was forced to physically cut the bit out of the master tape, but Weezer was still given credit in the liner notes because the notes were already printed. On June 25, 2010, over 14 years after the album's release, Yankovic released the un-mixed and un-mastered "Buddy Holly" clip on his official YouTube channel.

Unused parodies

In addition to the five parodies on the album, Yankovic had several parody ideas that were turned down. Originally, Yankovic wanted to turn The Offspring's hit " Come Out and Play" into an ode about doing laundry called "Laundry Day". There are conflicting stories as to why the song was never recorded; either Yankovic never approached The Offspring about releasing the parody, or the band denied permission. Either way, Yankovic performed the song in concert from 1996 through 2000. Despite not being able to parody "Come Out and Play", Yankovic would later be granted permission to parody their 1998 hit " Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" as "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi" on his 1999 album '' Running with Scissors''. Yankovic also wanted to record a parody of The Beatles' '' Anthology'' hit "Free as a Bird" titled "Gee, I'm a Nerd". Yankovic asked Paul McCartney, a supporter of Yankovic's work, if he could parody "Free as a Bird". McCartney had no problem with the parody, but because "Free as a Bird" was written by John Lennon, McCartney deferred the decision to Yoko Ono, who denied permission because she was uncomfortable with the parody idea.

Yankovic had also intended to record a parody of the U2 song " Numb" and a parody of The Rembrandts's hit song " I'll Be There for You". The "Numb" spoof would have been called "Green Eggs and Ham", a song in which Yankovic recited various lines from the Dr. Seuss

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