UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff
Soundtrack by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Released	July 18, 1989
Recorded	February to May 1989
Genre	Comedy
Length	42:28
Label	Scotti Brothers
Producer(s)	Rick Derringer
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
"Weird Al" Yankovic chronology
"Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits (1988)	UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989)	Off the Deep End (1992)

UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989), sometimes referred to simply as UHF, is the soundtrack to the comedy cult film UHF, by "Weird Al" Yankovic. The album featured many music cuts from the movie as well as some of the commercials ("Spatula City") and other parody bits ("Gandhi II"). The album also featured new original material such as "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota", which brought the running order up to album length.

Contents 1 Track listing 2 Miscellanea 3 Personnel 4 Production 5 Charts 6 External links

[edit] Track listing

1. "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" – 3:11
   • The (slightly altered) lyrics of the theme song from the television series The Beverly Hillbillies set to the tune of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing". The song actually appears in its entirety in the film as a computer-animated music video/dream sequence. Mark Knopfler himself played guitar on the track.
2. "Gandhi II" – 1:00
   • Skit: commercial for action television film with Mahatma Gandhi as the protagonist; references the film Gandhi. Gandhi was played by director Jay Levey. This is a Shaft pastiche.
3. "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet near Mars" – 3:28
   • Original rock song about a number of mutated hamsters terrorizing the planet.
   • Shares some elements with Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Three Steps".
4. "Isle Thing" – 3:37
   • Parody of Tone Lōc's "Wild Thing", about a girlfriend who introduced the singer to the television show Gilligan's Island. This is also Weird Al's first rap parody, "Twister" being an original.
   • Another Tone Lōc hit, "Funky Cold Medina", was referred to when he says, "Ginger and Mary Ann coulda used some funky cold medina".
5. "The Hot Rocks Polka" – 4:50
   • A polka medley featuring:
     • "It's Only Rock'n Roll (but I Like It)"
     • "Brown Sugar"
     • "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
     • "Honky Tonk Women"
     • "Under My Thumb"
     • "Ruby Tuesday"
     • "Miss You"
     • "Sympathy for the Devil"
     • "Get off of My Cloud"
     • "Shattered"
     • "Let's Spend the Night Together"
     • "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
   • all songs by The Rolling Stones. Arrangement and new music by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
6. "UHF" – 5:09
   • Original rock song done in the style of a television network's image campaign song; title theme to the movie. This is the second longest version, the longest being in the movie itself, during the credits crawl, and the shortest being released on later albums such as Greatest Hits Volume II.
   • Possibly a style parody of "State of Shock" by The Jacksons with Mick Jagger
7. "Let Me Be Your Hog" – 0:16
   • A style parody of the garage-punk genre, containing obvious elements of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by The Stooges.
   • Rock snippet, heard in the movie as Uncle Harvey lounges in his pool.
8. "She Drives Like Crazy" – 3:42
   • Parody of Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy" about a girlfriend with bad driving habits.
9. "Generic Blues" – 4:34
   • Style parody of B.B. King.
   • Original blues-style song with deliberately cliched lyrics, and the refrain, "Maybe I'll blow my brains out mama, or maybe I'll just go bowling instead".
10. "Spatula City" – 1:07
    • Skit: commercial for spatula outlet store. In the skit, Eldon G. Hallum plays the father, Sherry Engstrom plays the wife, and Sara Allen plays the neighbor. This skit caused a stir when people in California went looking for Spatula City.
11. "Fun Zone" – 1:45
    • Theme to Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse, the main show-within-a-show in the film. Originally written for failed Saturday Night Live replacement Welcome to the Fun Zone, this song is played at the beginning of every Weird Al concert. Style parody of "Blow Up" by Devo.
12. "Spam" – 2:59
    • Parody of R.E.M.'s "Stand", about the canned luncheon meat SPAM
13. "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" – 6:50
    • Lengthy folk-type song about a family road trip to a tourist location in Minnesota. The song was meant by Yankovic to spoof the storytelling songs of Harry Chapin and Gordon Lightfoot, but the structure and chord changes closely mirror the Chapin song "30,000 Pounds of Bananas".

[edit] Miscellanea

• In an interview with Dr. Demento, Yankovic indicated that, as a condition for use of "Money for Nothing", Mark Knopfler required that the song title reflect that Yankovic's version was clearly a parody; also as a condition Knopfler was to play guitar on it. Even though Yankovic's guitarist, Jim West, had been practicing for weeks, Mark Knopfler had been playing it on the road for months. Ironically, Jim West's version sounded more like the original version because he was imitating Knopfler.
• All of the destinations mentioned in the song "Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" were eventually real places, and came from the book Roadside America. The twine ball serenaded in this song is the ball in Darwin, Minnesota. When Yankovic wrote the song there was no "Twineball Inn" or postcards with "Greetings from the twineball, wish you were here". They came after the song was released.

[edit] Personnel

• "Weird Al" Yankovic - accordion, keyboards, vocals, backing vocals
• Kim Bullard - synthesizer
• Rick Derringer - guitar, backing vocals
• Guy Fletcher - synthesizer
• Steve Jay - bass, backing vocals
• Jimmy Z. - harmonica
• Mark Knopfler - guitar (only on "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies")
• Warren Luening - trumpet
• Jim Rose - vocals, announcer
• Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz - percussion, drums
• Donny Sierer - saxophone
• The Step Sisters - vocals
• The Waters Sisters - vocals, backing vocals
• Jim West - banjo, guitar (except on "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies"), backing vocals, background music

[edit] Production

• Producer: Rick Derringer
• Engineers: Daryll Dobson, Tony Papa
• Assistant engineer: Jamey Dell, Bill Malina
• Arranger: "Weird Al" Yankovic

[edit] Charts

Year	Chart	Position
1989	The Billboard 200	146

[edit] External links

• UHF and Other Stuff at MusicBrainz

v • d • e “Weird Al” Yankovic
Band members
"Weird Al" Yankovic • Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz • Steve Jay • Jim West • Rubén Valtierra
Discography
Studio albums: "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983) • "Weird Al" Yankovic In 3-D (1984) • Dare To Be Stupid (1985) • Polka Party! (1986) • Even Worse (1988) • UHF (1989) • Off The Deep End (1992) • Alapalooza (1993) • Bad Hair Day (1996) • Running With Scissors (1999) • Poodle Hat (2003) • Straight Outta Lynwood (2006)
List of singles by "Weird Al" Yankovic • List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic • Complete discography
Filmography
Music videos • "Al TV" • The Compleat Al • UHF • "The Weird Al Show" • "Weird Al" Yankovic Live!
Related articles
Singles • Songs • Dr. Demento • Music videos • Parody musicians • Comedy musicians