Bad Hair Day is the ninth album by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1996. (see 1996 in music). It includes the hit "Amish Paradise", a parody of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise".

Refused parodies

Yankovic had three main parody ideas that were refused. They include:

• A parody of The Offspring's hit "Come Out and Play" entitled "Laundry Day." Yankovic approached The Offspring about recording a parody of their first big hit. However, they were unimpressed by the song, stating that it was "silly." Yankovic did perform the song in concert in 1999 and 2000. Interestingly enough, The Offspring later allowed Yankovic to record a parody of "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" on his next album.
• A parody of The Beatles's hit "Free as a Bird" entitled "Gee, I'm a Nerd." Yankovic asked Paul McCartney, a supporter of Yankovic's work, if he could have permission to write and record a parody of "Free as a Bird." McCartney was all for the idea, but because "Free as a Bird" was written by John Lennon, McCartney turned the decision over to Yoko Ono, who denied permission, because it was "too early.
• A parody of The Rembrandts's song "I'll Be There for You" entitled "I'll Repair for You." Yankovic reportedly got permission from The Rembrandts to record the song, but permission was denied by the Friends producers because they didn't want their song "overexposed." Yankovic performed the song in concert in 1996 and 1997, under the conceit that he had written it as the theme song for Home Improvement, but they turned it down because "apparently it sounded too much like some other TV show theme song."

Track listing

Track	Title	Length	(Style) Parody of	Description
1	"Amish Paradise" (A. Ivey, Jr., L. Sanders, D. Rasheed, S. Wonder, Yankovic)	3:20	"Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio	About an Amish man who raps about his lifestyle.
2	"Everything You Know is Wrong"	3:48	Style parody of They Might Be Giants	About an unusual sequence of events, the title being a parody of the Firesign Theatre album of the same name.
3	"Cavity Search"	4:19	"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by U2	About a man's painful visit to the dentist
4	"Callin' In Sick"	3:40	A style parody of Nirvana	About a lazy man feigning illness to skip work.
5	"The Alternative Polka"	4:50	Polka Medley	A polka medley including the following alternative rock songs: "Loser" by Beck "Sex Type Thing" by Stone Temple Pilots "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails "Bang And Blame" by R.E.M. "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" by The Smashing Pumpkins "My Friends" by Red Hot Chili Peppers "I'll Stick Around" by Foo Fighters "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden "Basket Case" by Green Day "Ear Booker Polka" by "Weird Al" Yankovic
6	"Since You've Been Gone"	1:22	Original	Discusses a man's feelings after a break-up, at the end, ironically saying, "I feel almost as bad as I did when you were still here"
7	"Gump" (Chris Ballew, The Presidents of the United States of America, Yankovic)	2:10	Lump by The Presidents of the United States of America	About the story of Forrest Gump.
8	"I'm So Sick of You"	3:26	Style Parody of Elvis Costello.	About the singer's girlfriend and her odious personal habits.
9	"Syndicated Inc."	3:54	"Misery" by Soul Asylum	About a family's devotion to syndicated television.
10	"I Remember Larry"	3:56	Original	About a cruel neighborhood prankster (possibly a bully) named Larry (who performed such cruel gags as poisoning Al's lawn with toxic waste, to chopping Al's car in half), and how much the singer misses him after his death, until it is revealed that Al was the one who murdered him. Contains a backmasked message at 3:10, "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands."
11	"Phony Calls" (Organized Noize, Marqueze Etheridge, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Yankovic)	3:22	"Waterfalls" by TLC	About the dangers of prank calling. Contains an audio clip from The Simpsons featuring one of Bart Simpson's many prank calls to Moe's Tavern.
12	"The Night Santa Went Crazy"	4:03	Original	A Christmas-themed song about Santa Claus finally snapping and embarking on a killing spree.

Outtakes

Song	Length	Release(s)
"Spy Hard"	2:48	B-side of "Gump" Later released as its own single
"The Night Santa Went Crazy (Extra Gory Version)"	4:01	B-side of "Amish Paradise"

Notes

• This album was the last one to feature Yankovic's old look (before his LASIK eye surgery), as well as the last to be released under the Scotti Bros. label, before his move to Volcano Records.
• Bad Hair Day was originally going to be released in 1995, but was later bumped back to 1996 due to production delays.
• On some copies of this album, the copyright is 1994, 1995, and/or 1996.
• In the "Thank You" section of the liner notes, Weezer is thanked in the middle of the list of bands who were sampled for The Alternative Polka, hinting at the relatively unknown fact that Weezer's "Buddy Holly" was originally included (and recorded) in the medley, but had to be physically cut out because Weezer denied permission at the last second.
• Some copies of the Bad Hair Day CD accidentally used the Alapalooza CD art instead of the initial Bad Hair Day CD art.
• The version of "The Night Santa Went Crazy" featured as the B-side of "Amish Paradise" is listed as the "Extra Gory Version." In it, the closing lyrics are drastically different. Instead of Santa doing time in a federal prison, he is gunned down by a SWAT sniper and the elves are are not given postal jobs, but have to stand in line at the an unemployment agency. Mrs. Clause still negotiates the movie rights.

Credits

• "Weird Al" Yankovic - accordion, keyboards, vocals
• Hank Azaria - Voice of Moe Szyslak
• Nancy Cartwright - Voice of Bart Simpson
• Gary Herbig - bass saxophone
• Steve Jay - bass, background vocals
• Tommy Johnson - tuba
• Warren Luening - trumpet
• Joel Peskin - clarinet
• Lisa Popeil - background vocals
• Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz - percussion, drums
• Rubén Valtierra - keyboards
• Jim West - guitar, background vocals

Production

• Producer: "Weird Al" Yankovic
• Engineer: Tony Papa
• Assistant engineer: Colin Sauers
• Mixing: Tony Papa
• Mastering: Bernie Grundman
• Arranger: "Weird Al" Yankovic
• Art direction: Doug Haverty
• Photography: Carl Studna

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1996	The Billboard 200	14

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1996	"Amish Paradise"	The Billboard Hot 100	53

References

External links

• "Weird Al" Yankovic's Official Website