Handy and Tacky - which will be which?

[jacobpacek]

Picture the breakdown of Happy... the part where Lisa Popiel is gonna sing backing vocals. Now imagine her going "tackyyy, tackyyy, tackyy, tackyy..." vs "handyy, handyy, handyy, handyyy". Seems obvious Tacky is Happy.

Great point.

[Bruce the Duck]

Picture the breakdown of Happy... the part where Lisa Popiel is gonna sing backing vocals. Now imagine her going "tackyyy, tackyyy, tackyy, tackyy..." vs "handyy, handyy, handyy, handyyy". Seems obvious Tacky is Happy.

While my opinion on this matter has shifted towards Happy being Tacky, I think that breakdown might be cut entirely. "Tacky" is a whole minute shorter than "Happy", and I don't think Al would be able to do much with that breakdown in terms of making it funny, so it's probably part of that minute that was cut.

[Moneybags]

I'm guessing that breakdown will still be there, albeit shortened a bit. I also reacquainted myself with "Happy" yesterday, and the chorus repeats a LOT at the end. I'm thinking that repeated outro will also be cut down.

[yankochick38]

Idk man y'all thought the My Own Eyes spoilers were real too. Just sayin'.

Which of these ideas do you think Al was more likely to have proposed to Iggy: Handy or Tacky?

[darkhornet]

Picture the breakdown of Happy... the part where Lisa Popiel is gonna sing backing vocals. Now imagine her going "tackyyy, tackyyy, tackyy, tackyy..." vs "handyy, handyy, handyy, handyyy". Seems obvious Tacky is Happy.

While my opinion on this matter has shifted towards Happy being Tacky, I think that breakdown might be cut entirely. "Tacky" is a whole minute shorter than "Happy", and I don't think Al would be able to do much with that breakdown in terms of making it funny, so it's probably part of that minute that was cut.

Well, remember that "Happy" goes into that breakdown mid-song, hits the chorus, and then hits that breakdown again with a couple more times through the chorus. It's possible he just cuts it before it goes into the breakdown the second time.

Edit: Just went back to review the original. It's about a minute left in the song when Pharrell goes into the breakdown the second time. I think it's most likely that Al's just going to cut the second breakdown and chorus.

[OneWAY]

ha, the whole "My Own Eyes" thing was funny. The guy said it was toward the end of the album, and one person makes a track six guess, and the guy suddenly loses his mild amnesia and goes, "Oh, yeah! That's it!" One person gets the track list right earlier than we expect, and suddenly everyone is gullible (to be fair, people were gullible before that).

I really think Handy and Tacky are Fancy and Happy, respectively, specifically for the reasons Jon pointed out. I don't know the lyrics, but the words fit the chorus well (I have subjected myself to the originals quite a few times, tbh) if the tracks are supposedly so easy to get from the titles, I can at least trust that Handy is Fancy.

[Skippy]

In the interest of continuing this enthralling debate, I'd like to address an incorrect claim that people are making on this subject: that the first track is always the last song recorded. Recently, this has been true, but that's mostly because Al has had a whole album done and was waiting for a big song to parody for the lead single.

But in the past, to say that the first track was one of the last recorded is either misleading or downright untrue. So, let's review:

WAY: "Ricky" and "Buckingham Blues" were recorded on 2-11-83, nearly a year after the next most recent song. This one follows the "rule."
In 3D: All of the parodies and the polka were recorded on 12-12 and 12-13-83, two months after the originals. This one only follows on a technicality. Six songs were recorded "last."
DTBS: The polka was the last thing recorded, a few days after "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch," which was recorded a month after "Like a Surgeon." This one does not follow the "rule."
PP: "Good Enough For Now" was the last song recorded, a couple days after "Toothless People" and the polka, and nearly a month after "Living with a Hernia." Does not follow.
EW: Similar to In 3-D, all parodies and "Twister" are recorded on 2-18 and 2-19-88, two months after the other originals. Follows on technicality.
UHF: Obviously a special case due to its nature, but still: "Money For Nothing" was actually the first thing recorded. The non-movie stuff was recorded in 5-89. Does not follow.
OTDE: "Smells Like Nirvana," "I Was Only Kidding," the polka, and the hidden track were all recorded on 1-27-92. "Taco Grande" was also recorded in January. I'll count this as a follow.
Alapalooza: "Livin' in the Fridge" was the last thing recorded, a month after the other parodies. Does not follow.
BHD: "Amish Paradise" and "Syndicated Inc." were recorded on 1-15-96, a couple weeks after two other parodies and the polka. Follows, but it's close.
RWS: All parodies and the polka were recorded on 4-19 and 4-20-99, six months after the originals. Follows on technicality.
PH: Similarly, all parodies and the polka were recorded on 3-21-03, a year after the originals. Follows on technicality.
SOL: "White and Nerdy" and "Do I Creep You Out" were recorded on 7-22-06, five months after the other parodies. Follows.
Alpocalypse: "Perform This Way" was recorded on 4-6-11, six months after two other parodies. Follows.

So, by my count, of the past 13 albums, 5 follow the "rule" (and a couple of those are shaky), 4 follow only because the first song was one of many recorded "last" and 4 do not follow. Not much of a rule. Couple that with the fact that Al has said there is no "lead single," and there's no reason to think that the recording dates had any impact on the track sequencing.

Now, back to arguing about mouth shapes or whatever.

[Bruce the Duck]

I actually think that with something like this, the trend on the MOST RECENT albums is what matters most. With the 80s albums, the songs were all relatively current because the albums were only a year apart. Since RWS, the albums have been spaced 3, 4, and even 5 years apart. For that reason, Al has usually made the first song the most recent/current. It's not that the "last song recorded" is the lead single, it's that the song parodying the most recent hit is usually the lead single.

This is similar to how people have noted that odd numbered tracks are parodies/polkas and even tracks are originals. It's not true on the early albums, but that's only because of the fact that the older albums were on cassettes/LPs and he wanted a parody to lead each side of the album.

[Moneybags]

I've been kind of figuring that the whole "there isn't a lead single" post was more of a "please listen to all of the songs on the album and not just the Iggy Azalea parody that TMZ keeps talking about" angle, as opposed to an "I'm changing up the format of my album this time" angle.

[Skippy]

This is similar to how people have noted that odd numbered tracks are parodies/polkas and even tracks are originals. It's not true on the early albums, but that's only because of the fact that the older albums were on cassettes/LPs and he wanted a parody to lead each side of the album.

It's also not true on SOL, but I know, I know, you have an excuse for that too.

Why is it so hard to just accept that there aren't rules for how Al put albums together? There are trends, but those have been broken for any number of reasons, and the fact that Al is planning on having a lead single seems like as good a reason as any.