World of Weird Al Yankovic

I believe this is wrong. He specifically mentions Holiday Inn, not Holiday Inn Express. There was a regular Holiday Inn in ABQ, but it was sold and is now a Ramada, I believe.

I'm gonna stick with my theory, on the theory that nobody actually says "Holiday Inn Express" unless they're answering the phone there, but if you want to find documentation of your Ramada theory, I'm willing to take a look at it.

Orthography Enthusiast wrote:on the theory that nobody actually says "Holiday Inn Express" unless they're answering the phone there

Well just to play devil's advocate, I do think that the protagonist of Albuquerque would have specified if it was a Holiday Inn Express, especially given the context of the line: "finally I arrived at the world famous... Albuquerque Holiday Inn"
If this location was indeed world famous (or, more accurately, if he thought it was), he would likely have called it the world famous Albuquerque Holiday Inn Express, where the towels are oh so fluffy. Consider how specific he was about other details throughout the song, most notably the description of where he grew up in the first line of the song. Does this seem like the type of guy who abbreviates the names of world famous hotels?

Having done some Wikipedia-ing on the subject of Holiday Inn Express, on balance I am now leaning away from my own theory... but not for TMBJon's reason. If Al-the-songwriter can leave out an essential part of the gravitational constant in "Pancreas" he can certainly leave an essential part out of a hotel name in "Albuquerque."

The real drawback to the Holiday Inn Express theory is that the chain is limited-service and wouldn't have had the turndown service with the little chocolate mint on his pillow that he loves so very, very much.

The fact remains, though, that the Holiday Inn Express mentioned above is the only one still extant in Albuquerque that was built early enough to predate the song. If the rebranded-Ramada theory is true, I wouldn't know how to go about proving it.

Wikipedia did give me a bit of a clue, though, why "Holiday Inn" might have come to Al's mind at this juncture of the song. From the Wikipedia article on Holiday Inn Express:

Starting in 1997, Holiday Inn Express started an ad campaign called "Stay Smart" ads that featured ordinary people achieving superior feats, such as averting a nuclear disaster or performing like rock stars. When questioned on whether or not they are professionals, they reply "No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express," attributing their skills to their stay there. These ads have received positive reviews, and have been so successful they have crossed over into popular culture, being features in late night comedian jokes and political cartoons

Knowing now that the Stay Smart campaign launched in 1997 makes me ever more convinced that he would not have referred to a Holiday Inn Express as a Holiday Inn. By late 1998 when Albuquerque was recorded, the catch phrase "I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night" was well ingrained into the zeitgeist.

One thing I just remembered now is that the summer of 1999 when RWS came out, my family took a trip to Durango, CO, which involved flying in and out of Albuquerque. Aside from annoying everyone by playing an 11-minute song on repeat throughout the New Mexican desert, I also remember making my parents look into whether we could stay at the world famous Holiday Inn, and while we didn't end up staying there it did exist and it was just a plain old Holiday Inn proper.

Considering how much time I've spent pontificating on this topic, I just want to be clear that I don't actually believe Al had any particular hotel location in mind when writing the song but I really do appreciate the thorough speculation.

Ridiculously-obsessive poring over the details is part of the fun (see Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota). No idea WHERE that Holiday Inn was?

Orthography Enthusiast wrote:Ridiculously-obsessive poring over the details is part of the fun (see Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota). No idea WHERE that Holiday Inn was?

In the LucasArts adventure game Sam and Max Hit the Road, the world's biggest ball of twine is clearly located in Minnesota, according to the game's map.

Hence the last two words in the name. Helen was referring to where the ABQ holiday Inn is

minnick27 wrote:Hence the last two words in the name. Helen was referring to where the ABQ holiday Inn is

I never realized that "ABQ" was actually an acronym for Albuquerque. I think in the case of the song, the acronym should be "ALBQ."

JohnnyLurg wrote:

minnick27 wrote:Hence the last two words in the name. Helen was referring to where the ABQ holiday Inn is

I never realized that "ABQ" was actually an acronym for Albuquerque. I think in the case of the song, the acronym should be "ALBQ."

I believe ABQ is the abbreviation for the airport, and those are always 3 letters.