Easily the weird one’s best effort in many years, this masterpiece’s main selling point for most will be “The Saga Begins”, a more-or-less straightforward (but still funny!) retelling of Star Wars Episode I to the tune of Don McLean’s “American Pie”. But I’m in love with “Polka Power!”, a polka-ized medley of the past three years’ biggest pop hits (on speed). It seems like the past three years have produced more than their share of flash-in-the-pan smash hits which truly sound silly if one thinks about it for more than ten seconds. “Polka Power!” single-handedly takes on the Spice Girls, Chumbawamba, Hanson, the Backstreet Boys, Marilyn Manson, Madonna, and the Beastie Boys, among others. Other parodies include a commentary on Jerry Springer (sung to the tune of Barenaked Ladies’ “One Week”), Grapefruit Diet (another trademark Weird Al “fat” song to the tune of Cherry Poppin’ Daddies’ “Zoot Suit Riot”), and “Pretty Fly For a Rabbi” (to the tune of “Pretty Fly For A White Guy”). And Weird Al parodies 
the style, if not any specific song, of Nine Inch Nails in a tune called “Germs”. But the best original tune is the 11+ minute rambling rock extravaganza called “Albuquerque”. I don’t know if the song was improvised, or if Weird Al actually set out to write a number that would take one-sixth of an hour out of your life, but it’s quite entertaining, to put it mildly!
- The Saga Begins (5:27)
- My Baby’s In Love With Eddie Vedder (3:25)
- Pretty Fly For A Rabbi (3:02)
- The Weird Al Show Theme (1:13)
- Jerry Springer (2:46)
- Germs (4:35)
- Polka Power! (4:21)
- Your Horoscope for Today (3:59)
- It’s All About the Pentiums (3:34)
- Truck Drivin’ Song (2:27)
- Grapefruit Diet (3:30)
- Albuquerque (11:22)
Released by: Volcano
Release date: 1999
Total running time: 47:48
