Great for novice Weird Al fans.

About seven years ago I might have given this package 5 stars. This box set was great in its heyday, but I'm afraid it is severely outdated now. I think it's time for a new one. Weird Al Yankovic is definitely famous enough to warrant a second box set. Hell, Led Zeppelin has two box sets. Why shouldn't Al?



This only covers Al's career from early 1980, to about 1993 or thereabouts. Nothing from "Bad Hair Day, Running With Scissors," or "Poodle Hat" is included, not to mention his latter-day film theme songs like "Spy Hard," or "Polkamon." If you are one of those people who lives in the past, though, or one of those misguided fools who thinks Al should have retired some time back in 1989, then this is the perfect purchase for you. It has a couple of rarities that can't be heard anywhere else, like Al's original accordion version of "My Bologna," and "Headline News" the parody of "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by the Crash Test Dummies, which was written specially for this box set. The brief bio booklet that comes with the set is pretty cool too. It was written by Dr. Demento, and it chronicles Al's youth, college days as an architecture major, and his rise to fame. Overall, this is a great buy for the casual fan, but if you are like me and you are obsessed, I suggest you do like I did and just buy all of the CDs.

A Convincing Testament to Weird Al's Power

To some people, Weird Al Yankovic may be one of the last people who would deserve a multi-disc box set in their catalog, let alone a four-disc set, which PERMANENT RECORD is. After all, he only had eight songs chart on the Hot 100 between 1983 and 1994, his albums had a tendency to be bogged down with filler, and his popularity never really passed cult status because of his wacky persona.

But yet, PERMANENT RECORD is actually a wonderful entry in Yankovic's catalog, since because of his cult status, Yankovic had a lot of songs in his catalog that became personal favorites among his fans, even if they didn't rank among his best work. And that's what this anthology tries to do: it tries to take all of Yankovic's best songs and favorites among fans from his breakthrough single "My Bologna" to "Headline News," and it almost gets everything right. A couple of good tracks may be missing- like "Theme from Rocky XIII" and "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long"- but otherwise, all of Yankovic's notable numbers during his first fifteen years of recording are here, whether they're parodies like "I Love Rocky Road"; "Eat It"; "I Lost on Jeopardy"; "Like a Surgeon"; "Fat"; and "Smells Like Nirvana," or originals like "Midnight Star"; "Mr. Popeil"; "Dare to Be Stupid"; "One More Minute"; and "You Don't Love Me Anymore." Perhaps a few of the tracks don't make their case here- most notably a couple from ALAPALOOZA- but yet the entire set is filled with enough appealing material to be entertaining from start to finish. And maybe a few people will argue that it would have been nice if this three-hour collection had been on three discs instead of four, but the approach here works to its benefit, as the collection smoothly showcases Yankovic's artistic "growth" (for want of a better word) by placing material on each disc from two full albums.

The more casual fans may be satisfied by just getting Yankovic's single-disc hits compilations, but for those who want the most of Yankovic in one collection, PERMANENT RECORD is the perfect place to go. After all, as the collection is playing, it's easy to see why Yankovic has maintained a significant cult following over the years, let alone why he is one of the best novelty artists in the history of recorded music.

Years Ago

After long and hard years of making fun of artist's such as Mike
Jackson, Coolio & lots more Weird Al comes out with the ultimate
compliction. And I mean let's face it who is better than Weird
Al at making fun of people and making there songs look like
nobody. Which is why you should get this CD because if you're
tierd of your average everyday Rapper Weird Al makes those average guys look lik inferior. Never the less it's your choice
but if you're a fan of parady artists Werid Al counqers them all
with PERMANENT RECORD [BOX SET]. Also did you know that Weird Al
was sued by Coolio in 1996 for no permission to use the
Gangsta's Paradise parady Amish Paradise. And he has met & worked with lots of artist's thourgh the 80's and the 90's. I also hope Werid Al makes a come back CD like Coolio and Jackson did.