"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter "Weird
Al" Yankovic, released on February 28, 1984, by Rock 'n Roll Records.
The album was one of many produced by former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer.
Recorded between October and December 1983, the album was Yankovic's follow-up to his
modestly successful debut LP, "Weird Al" Yankovic.
The music on "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D is built around parodies and pastiches of pop
and rock music of the mid-1980s.
Half of the album is made up of parodies, featuring jabs at Michael Jackson, Men Without
Hats, The Greg Kihn Band, The Police, and Survivor.
The other half of the album is original material, featuring many "style parodies", or musical
imitations that come close to, but do not copy, existing artists.
These style parodies include imitations of specific artists like Bob Marley and The B-52s.
This album marked a musical departure from Yankovic's self-titled debut, in that the
arrangements of the parodies were now closer to the originals and the accordion was no
longer used in every song, now only being featured where deemed appropriate or wholly
inappropriate for comedic effect.
"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D is also notable for being the first album released by Yankovic
to feature a polka medley of hit songs.
These pastiches of hit songs, set to polka music, have since appeared on nearly all of
Yankovic's albums.
"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D was met with mostly positive reviews and peaked at number seventeen
on the Billboard 200 and number sixty-one in Australia.
The album also produced one of Yankovic's most famous singles, "Eat It", which peaked
at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100.
This song was Yankovic's highest charting single until "White & Nerdy" from his 2006
album Straight Outta Lynwood peaked at number nine in the October 21, 2006 Billboard charts.
"Eat It" also charted at number one in Australia, making it Yankovic's only number one single
in any country.
The album also produced two minor US hits, "King of Suede", which peaked at number sixty-two,
and "I Lost on Jeopardy", which peaked at number eighty-one.
The album was Yankovic's first Gold record, and went on to be certified Platinum for sales
of over one million copies in the United States.
"Eat It" won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Performance Single or Album, Spoken or Musical
in 1985.
In October 1983, Yankovic began recording his second album at Santa Monica Sound Recorders,
in Santa Monica, California.
To produce it, he brought in former The McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer, who also produced
Yankovic's first album.
Backing Yankovic were Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, Steve Jay on bass, and Jim West
on guitar.
During the first recording session for the album, five original songs were recorded:
"Nature Trail To Hell", "Mr. Popeil", "Buy Me a Condo", "Midnight Star", and "That Boy
Could Dance".
Two months later, Yankovic began recording the five parodies and polka medley that would
appear on the album: "Eat It", "King of Suede", "I Lost on Jeopardy", "Theme from Rocky XIII
", "The Brady Bunch", and "Polkas on 45".
One of the first originals recorded for the album was "Midnight Star", a loving ode to
fictional supermarket tabloids.
The liner notes to Permanent Record state that a Weekly World News article about the
"Incredible Frog Boy" helped to inspire the song.
According to Yankovic, most of the tabloid headlines were real.
He spent several weeks collecting and looking through old tabloids to find inane titles.
Initially he thought that "Midnight Star" should have been the lead single for the album,
but later relented and released "Eat It" instead.
"Buy Me a Condo" is a style parody of Bob Marley and the reggae genre in general.
"Mr. Popeil" is a song discussing the inventor Samuel Popeil and his myriad inventions of
varying usefulness.
Musically, it is a style parody of the B-52s, something that Robert Christgau once said
"exploits Yankovic's otherwise fatal resemblance to Fred Schneider."
One of the backing vocalists on the track is Samuel Popeil's daughter Lisa Popeil.
When recording the song, Yankovic came across an article about Lisa Popeil and her singing
career; later he asked her if she would be interested in appearing in the song, to which
she agreed.