BBB Reviews: UHF: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff

Instead of ‘Even Worse, Al’s last studio album actually was a rebound. Hitting a good spot on the Billboard charts, it seemed as if a creative surge was pounding through Al, and good music was the order of the day.
Little did the unsuspecting public (outside the Tulsa area primarily) know that Al and his long-time manager Jay Levey were planning on making a movie!
Shot for about five million dollars in 1988-1989, the movie known as UHF performed just well enough to earn the budget back and then some. Of course with any movie comes a soundtrack, and thus a jumbled mix of sounds and themes from the album about to be reviewed today.
Now before you all start thinking this is a bad album, I’m telling you it’s NOT! Judging by this list made not too long ago, I ranked this album #4 of all the albums Al ever made. Some of it sympathy but most of it deserved, UHF is a highly underrated set of Yankovic’s lyrical children. So now to the album!
1. Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*: Of all the parodies that Al ever did, surprisingly this one caused a lot of commotion.
The parody of “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits apparently was forced to have that Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies* title due to lawyer wranglings. In any case, at least a music video was able to be made from it!
Another thing to take note at is Mark Knopfler also did guitar for the track. Al quipped on DVD commentary that there was no duplicating the loose feel Mark had.
To set up the song as it was in the movie, you have Al’s character George Newman looking at old footage, mainly of said ‘Hillbillies’. The footage then delves into a computer-generated jam where Al voices Jed Clampett, explaining primarily the plot/purpose of the show.
As you can imagine, some of the lyrics from the show’s original theme do pop up here. “Swimming pools, mova-mova-mova-movie stars!”
Al always had a knack of starting albums strong, and bah gawd this is no exception!

On the actual track, Mark Knopfler lends his guitar making abilities due to Al thinking it would provide a looser feel to the tighter parodies that Al’s own band would create. Also, no lyrics widget unfortunately due to those BS copyright laws. I’ll also state that the single to this song was also released ONE DAY before I was born! :)

2. “Gandhi II”: It’s one of several tracks on the album that’s not really a song, but instead a small snippet of the movie.
Made for Channel 62 in the primetime slot, Gandhi II is “Mr. Passive Resistance” thrown around 180 degrees. Instead of having “peace”, Gandhi shows up with vengeance and ass-kicking on his mind. WATCH THIS!

“I’ll have a steak…medium rare…”

3. Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars: This song is an original, but at the same time feels VERY familiar.
While the beats are a little different and the lyrics are a little different, you can’t help this song just by the song title feels a lot like “Slime Creatures from Outer Space”. Just like the song mentioned, it revolves around creatures, this time hamsters, coming to Earth and terrorizing the land. Really, there’s nothing much to note besides that.

Lyrics | Weird Al Yankovic lyrics - Attack Of The Radioactive Hampster From A Planet N lyrics
4. “Isle Thing”: This song is indeed a parody, that of “Wild Thing” by Tone Loc. It also is appears to be the first rap/hip-hop parody Al has done up to this point in his career.
In the song, Al’s fling introduces him to a show, we might have heard of it, called “Gilligan’s Island”. After this basic premise, it seems like the main character cannot stand the show at all. Sounded stupid, with Gilligan even stupider than that. Hey wait, wasn’t that the ORIGINAL complaints of the show?
Also, it seems that Al not only parodied the song, but also Tone Loc’s voice and referred to another one of his songs near the end, that of “Cold Funky Medina”.

Lyrics | Weird Al Yankovic lyrics - Isle Thing lyrics
5. “The Hot Rocks Polka”: After taking a break from polkas in “Even Worse”, Al is back. This time however, he attacks one band instead of a bunch of the most relevant people at the time.
The target? ROLLING STONES BABY! Also notice that the title of this polka refers to a greatest hits album the Stones had at this time.
Here’s the loot:

• "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"
  
• "Ear Booker Polka" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

The main “polka” sound behind the music got heavily revamped, and it would be used in many of Al’s later (and better) polkas. Although the selection of songs is limited to one band, it’s actually a BADLY underrated track. All of those songs were done impeccably, and I couldn’t have agreed more with the book-ends of the track. I give this polka TWO THUMBS UP!
Lyrics | Weird Al Yankovic lyrics - The Hot Rocks Polka lyrics
6. “UHF”: An original song, a style parody of “State of Shock” by The Jacksons, and with a lot of different people being parodied/stylized in the music video. I’m not going to go deep into that, but just the song itself.
One of very few “title tracks” Al ever did, UHF feels like a shameless self-promotion of selling to in-movie characters. “Don’t change the channel, don’t touch that dial, we got it all on UHF!”
Also, there are two versions of this song. The one on the album is essentially a “long-cut”, where two larger instrumental jams are stretched-out/faded later, as opposed to the singles version where those jams were cut short, and thus the running time went from a shade over five minutes down to a shade under four minutes!

Turns your brain to cottage cheese!

Lyrics | Weird Al Yankovic lyrics - Uhf lyrics
7. “Let Me Be Your Hog”: Mindless 0:17 rambling. On the DVD commentary, Al noted how he wanted to get "Kung Fu Fighting" in the movie. This should have occurred in the scene where Uncle Harvey, in his pool, was awaiting a call from Big Louie concerning a debt. The royalty price was way too high for the movie's budget ($12,000), so Al instead went to the studio and yelled out this piece.
8. “She Drives Like Crazy”: A parody of “She Drives Me Crazy” by Fine Young Cannibals.
It’s a pop rhythm with Al’s character complaining about how badly his girl drives. Simple as that.
Lyrics | Weird Al Yankovic lyrics - She Drives Like Crazy lyrics
9. “Generic Blues”: While this song is lyrically original, the inspiration behind it doesn’t require a lot of imagination.
Think of it as Al’s love-letter to the “Blues”, pretty much that style of both rhythm and song made in Chicago back 30-40 years before this tune was even made! Add in your usual Al torture elements, and a classic is made!
Lyrics | Weird Al Yankovic lyrics - Generic Blues lyrics
10. “Spatula City”: Another commercial from UHF.
Apparently amongst the first footage shot for the movie, it’s about a store that sells, well, SPATULAS!

“Okay kids, let’s go!”

11. “Fun Zone”: This song is an instrumental theme to the “Stanley Spudowski’s Clubhouse” program in the movie. Apparently, it’s also the theme used at the beginning of EVERY Al concert, and it’s also the music you hear on the main menu of the Weird Al Yankovic - The Ultimate Video Collection. Also FYI: did you know that this song is also the theme for “Welcome to the Fun Zone”, a show originally written to replace Saturday Night Live?
12. “Spam”: This song is a parody of “Stand” by R.E.M., and revolves around, you guessed it, SPAM!
Essentially it’s an ode to that luncheon meat. While Al notes it’s made of ham and pork, there could also be mystery meat in there? What thoughtful lyrics! He also tells us about the tab on the can, which is pretty weird, but okay…..
It was a song destined for the Food Album. Ironically, Al would be a vegan after UHF.
Lyrics | Weird Al Yankovic lyrics - Spam lyrics
13. “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota”: A style parody of “30,000 Pounds of Bananas” by Harry Chapin. This was #6 on my count down list I did, and here is what I wrote then:
(before anyone asks, no, they didn’t go to Spatula City)
This song gives birth to a somewhat-tradition of Al’s: Put your longest song LAST on the record! At nearly seven minutes, this song feels as long as the road trip the characters of this song make, as you guessed it, they travel to Minnesota to look at the biggest ball of twine in the whole wide world! A song I wish was somehow worked into the movie, it sounds like something promoted on that channel! The imagery, that of kids jumping around in the back seat asking “are we there yet” is some old-time nostalgia, that of 20 years to the former. And who wants to eat pickled weiners and diet chocolate soda? Yum? I DON’T KNOWWWWWWW! As the dad character, Al wonders (in paraphrase) of what the hell the point was with this ball of twine? After the gift shop expenditure, time to go home, and there is seven minutes gone! 
Lyrics | Weird Al Yankovic lyrics - The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota lyrics
In conclusion, this album is pretty underrated. Al is all over the map musically, Rap, rock, hip hop, pop, and even CHICAGO BLUES, get torn to shreds, but torn to shreds like a pork butt roasted in a BBQ joint.
Sadly though, this would be the second in three albums that wouldn’t rank high/not get certified ‘Platinum’ by the RIAA. It’s a shame, because while the audience of the movie exploded about a decade after release, this album never did. Please, do yourself a favor and get this! Even BB King says ‘Generic Blues’ is one of his favorite blues songs of all time!