Talk:Poodle Hat

Hardware Store a parody?
I don't believe that Hardware Store is a parody of anything, especially not of "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)". It does not appear anywhere on his Parodys/Polkas page on the official site (here). Bkid 23:02, 13 October 2006 (UTC)


 * The official page only lists direct parodies and unchanged lyrical elements for the polkas. Nobody is claiming that Hardware Store is a direct parody, it's mentioned as a "possible pastiche".  There is no debate that "Everything You Know is Wrong" is a They Might Be Giants pastiche, or that "Dare To Be Stupid" is a Devo pastiche, in part because Al has said outright that they are.  But they're originals, not parodies, so they're listed as such, just like "Hardware Store".  Incidentally, his most recent album marks the first time that he listed subjects of his pastiches in the "Special Thanks" section of the liner notes (for example, "Virus Alert" is not a direct parody of any Sparks song, but the founding members, Ron & Russell Mael, are in the "Special Thanks" list). - Ugliness Man 11:23, 14 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Al himself says that Hardware Store is not a style parody: "In fact, I enjoy doing these kinds of songs so much, I hardly ever do an 'original' original any more. (I guess 'Hardware Store' could be considered a true original – but truth be told, that was actually a screwed-up style parody. I started out trying to write in the style of a particular group, but I got it so wrong that I just gave up and did it my own way instead.)" http://www.weirdal.com/aaarchive.htm#062806 --Jere7my 23:27, 10 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Interestingly, his original has been parodied...scan down this page for "Dumbledore" I mention :-) 78.86.230.62 (talk) 22:06, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Genius in France
Has Al mentioned it taking elements from Frank Zappa? Because it also seems to contain Todd Rundgren's style of music, instrument use, and definately vocal tones. Further discussion should take place here. - Silvanos| 7:16, 28 October 2006(UTC)
 * Al has stated plainly and unambiguously that it is a Frank Zappa tribute . Frank's son Dweezil plays guitar on it, too.  Al has, however, never mentioned anything about Todd Rundgren.  There does indeed need to be further discussion, specifically something verifiable that points to a Rundgren tribute, and a personal opinion stating an apparant similarity isn't verifiable.  I'm removing the reference, if you intend to restore it come up with something more solid please. - Ugliness Man 15:37, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, I know this isn't an acceptable justification for a well referenced article, but if you've listened to much Zappa it's very, very clear that it's a Zappa tribute and a Zappa tribute only. I only own one Todd Rundgren album, and there are similarities between their styles, but I think it's generally accepted that Rundgren was heavily influenced by Zappa; in fact, it even says so on the Todd Rundgren entry (although it is unsourced...). I personally don't think it's worth mentioning Todd Rundgren, that's like saying the White Stripes are influenced by Jet because they are both influenced by Iggy Pop... Mrjohn 03:44, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Cover Art
All the other albums have cover art references...this one (front and back) is a reference to Billy Joel's Turnstiles, although his song Piano Man (which is parodied on Poodle Hat) comes from a different album. ZimZimmah 20:42, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Money?
Someone added a comment that the beginning of "Hardware Store" sounds similar to Pink Floyd's "Money". I am removing this because the similarity is vague. You could just as easily say that it sounds like the beginning of "Silly Love Songs" or "Allentown". All of the aforementioned songs start off with rhytmic sounds that resemble basic industrial noises ("industrial" referring to tools and heavy machinery, not the musical genre). Further, "Money" is in 9/8 swing-time, whereas "Hardware Store" and the other two songs I mentioned are all in straight 4/4 time. - Ugliness Man 13:13, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Which Backstreet Boy is Gay?
It's not mentioend anywhere on wiki, so I wonder if it's actuall his song. - Darkhawk
 * No, it's not a Weird Al song, it's by a guy called MikeBoySlim. In fact, it's odd that you ask about this on the Poodle Hat article, considering that this is the album which has a parody of that BSB song that Al actually did perform ("eBay").  Anyway, you might want to consult the Not Al list for future reference, there are literally dozens of songs attributed to Al which he had nothing to do with. - Ugliness Man 05:20, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

P.O.D.
Since it was asked why the mention of P.O.D. in the Trivia section got reverted for "no good reason", I just wanted to deal with it a little here. The fact that none of the members of P.O.D. are white is pretty much incidental. The title "Angry White Boy Polka" is just a title, and, aside from the Eminem capper, the common thread among the artists chosen is the music style, not race. On another album Al did a medly called "Alternative Polka", but some people would argue that many (or even all) of the artists chosen are not necessarily "alternative" (Sheryl Crow comes to mind). However, there is currently no mention of this on the Bad Hair Day article, because it is unencyclopedic and largely irrelevant. This is an online encyclopedia, not a fan forum, and such comments might be relevant elsewhere, and perhaps if the polka medly ended up with its own article (which won't happen), such a tidbit might be noteworthy, but it's certainly not something worth mentioning on the article about the whole album

In addition, the way that the comment was phrased was awkward. If it was decided with consensus that the comment should be included in the article, it will need to be rephrased. - Ugliness Man 08:39, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Wanna B Ur Lovr = Beck, not Prince
The title of Wanna B Ur Lovr may be a Prince reference, but the song itself is blatantly a Beck pastiche. The "Girl, you must be Jamaican" repeated line is a direct riff on "Keep your lamplights trimmed and burning" from Peaches & Cream, for instance. Beck was himself influenced by Prince on that album, which may account for some of the confusion. --Jere7my 22:44, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah, here we go. Al himself replies to a fan question: "Jeannie of Tokyo, Japan asks: Was 'Wanna B Ur Lovr' intended to be a style parody of anyone specific? It totally sounds like Midnite Vultures-era Beck to me, but I was just wondering. AL: You’re right on the money. The Prince-like title throws a lot of people, but that song is actually intended to sound like me trying to sound like Beck trying to sound like Prince." http://www.weirdal.com/aaarchive.htm --Jere7my 23:08, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

messed up song links
Some of the songs link to pages that do not exist, yet some of the songs link to not song pages, but "EBay" links to the website eBay, Bob links to Bob (song), and others link right back to "Poodle Hat". People have created redirect pages linking back. Should these redirect pages be removed? Changed? That wasn't very thought through. Although, I don't know how I would go about fixing this. Yelling Bird 03:37, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

5 Senses
Somebody posted that "Starting with Alapalooza, through Poodle Hat, the center of the CD represents one of the five senses. The 'sense' for Poodle Hat is the sense of taste."

The problem with this is between Alapalooza and Poodle Hat, there are only 4 CD's so it can't represent the 5 sense. I don't want to delete it if it is true, but can somebody fill me in. I just assumed the covers were weird pictures. I guess it makes a little sense:


 * Alapalooza: Probably Smelling
 * Bad Hair Day: ??? (Possibly the ability to 'Touch')
 * Running With Scissors: ??? (Possibly 'Hearing')
 * Poodle Hat: Supposedly Taste

Can somebody fill me in.--Gen. Quon 17:14, 13 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Nowhere does it say *all* 5 senses are covered through the 4 CDs...perhaps Lynwood is the 5th one and the guy's neglected to mention it? 78.86.230.62 (talk) 05:42, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Jewish Background
Why does "Hardware store" list that Yankovic has a jewish background? Because Al's own Wikipedia entry lists that he has none.

Namrepus221 05:57, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

"Dumbledore" a parody of Hardware Store
http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=12283

I have the MP3 of this song, and I believe it is a part of the Dr Demento archive...it's a very faithful parody with perfect music and the song itself is pretty good...however, I notice it's not mentioned on the main page...I think it's worth mentioning because it's the first time Al's made an original song and someone ELSE parodied it rather than the other way around :-) 78.86.230.62 (talk) 22:08, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

"Genius in France" subject?
"Genius in France" is obviously in reference to Jerry Lewis: is there any reference which so states? (Or has Al been 'polite' on this point?)

137.254.4.8 (talk) 22:19, 25 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Actually, he's pretty open about it. He first confirmed it in an interview with VH1, but VH1's website recently changed everything, so I can't find it at the moment. This also means that every Wikipedia source that links to VH1 (including the ones already on this page) no longer go anywhere, unfortunately.

Bob (song)
Why does Bob (song) redirect to this article instead of the disambiguation page for Bob in the  music section that includes this article?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob#Music --108.211.193.185 (talk) 12:45, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Hardware Store
Hardware store is not actually a style parody; it was originally intended to be one, but the idea was scrapped, and the song was turned into a full-fledged original. Shouldn't this be fixed? Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2as5t1/this_is_weird_al_yankovic_amaa_ask_me_anything/ciy9cqa SebYB67 (talk) 19:38, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Poodle Hat. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20121021045947/http://www.vh1.com/news/articles/1471733/20030506/yankovic_weird_al.jhtml to http://www.vh1.com/news/articles/1471733/20030506/yankovic_weird_al.jhtml

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Footloose style parody
“Party at the leper colony” is clearly a style parody of “Footloose (song)” by Kenny Loggins, both in lyrics and arrangement, but that is my original research, and I can’t find a citable reference. Design (talk) 08:15, 2 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that's a good guess, but alas, without a citation we can't do much.-- Gen. Quon   (Talk)  16:25, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

"Wanna B Ur Lovr" influenced by "Down Home Girl"
I can't find any reliable sources for this, so this original research can't be added to the article. Adding this here in case reliable sources can be found.

"Wanna B Ur Lovr" seems to derive some inspiration from "Down Home Girl," first performed by Alvin Robinson and then covered by the Rolling Stones, both in song structure and theme (a man making rather unflattering comments to attract a woman). Davidwbaker (talk) 18:27, 29 February 2024 (UTC)