World of Weird Al Yankovic

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:49 am**

I really like this whole album cover discussion, mostly because its one of those thing I've thought about while staying up late on a night much like this one. While Al quickly wrote and recorded this song, its clear that little time went into the cover.

However, I can see why... somewhat. I mean, without a video, how would a cover idea form? If there were a video, a picture of Al in costume could have been used. But there was no video, so a random costume might be suggesting a video that wasn't planned. Plus, in all honesty, what would you have put as a cover. Money? He sort of covered that with the diamond lettering. Without it being a cheesy cover, Al made something that would suffice as a sort-of picture with song title and his name.

Trust me, I'm not saying that its a good cover and I fully agree with your ideas, but I don't necessarily blame and/or get really upset about it.

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:15 am**

AlejandraDD @ November 16, 2008 05:19 am wrote: Well, I'm bringing the discussion on the cover art on this topic. After all, we're talking about the song here.

I'm not sure what's the story behind it, and I might eventually sympathize if I hear something like "well, we *had* to come up with something, but we were trapped in a snow blizzard and we could see the four horsemen of the Apocalypse through the window". I mean, I don't know, it might be one of those "you had to be there" kind of things.

But here are two of my main problems with it:

A. It doesn't have Al's pretty face in it
and
B. The cover art IS! NOT! FUNNY!

Problem A is mostly a personal problem, and I understand if you tell me to deal with it. But problem B... well, it's a problem for everyone.

Let's not forget that Al is a musician, and selling songs is part of his business. Now, we love Al and he doesn't need to try to sell us anything. Hell, we'd probably throw ourselves in front of a train if he asked us to! But the other 99.9% of potential customers don't read Al's MySpace Blog, the Yank Blog, or have the "weird al yankovic" alert on Yahoo News (what? why are you looking at me like that). So he needs to reach those people somehow. And if you consider the fact that iTunes didn't help with the advertising at all, what was left? Al's "brand" (his name and reputation), and the album cover.

And that album cover just... *sigh*. Seriously. I have no idea what they tried to do with that. (Again, maybe if it was explained to me. Maybe.) The cover for Running with Scissors? Funny. The cover for Poodle Hat? Hilarious! (The man had a freaking dog on top of his head!) Sure, those covers don't tell you what the songs are about, but they do a good communication job, letting you know that if you buy those albums, there's going to be something funny inside. And the cover for WYL, well, just doesn't. (And the cover for Polka Party didn't either, but that's a story for another day)

So, in conclusion, I have waaaaaay too much free time on my hands, and here's my "parody" of the cover "art", because I need to amuse myself somehow.

AWESOME post Alejandra.....

As usual you have hit the nail on the head. There is a marketing problem here for sure.
... your parody is great! lol

Meli.. I think Al on the cover lampooning some shot from the TI video would have got the message over pretty well with relatively small expense maybe?

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 1:28 pm**

Am I the only person who thinks the cover art of Straight Outta Lynwood is hilarious??

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 2:46 pm**

There is a Preview function on iTunes.

Yeah, but you only preview a song if you're interested in it somehow. I doubt most people run around previewing every single song on the New Releases section.

Am I the only person who thinks the cover art of Straight Outta Lynwood is hilarious??

No. Once again, it's the dog that makes it funny.

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:24 pm**

Ok, maybe a picture of Al would have been the better idea. Then people might have been a little more curious.

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:37 pm**

I agree, an Al pic might have marketed better.

But maybe Al chose the cover because, as he did with the song title, he wanted to confuse people. Maybe this could lead to a new audience. I've seen people looking on iTunes and avoiding Al, cause they think the album cover means its not 'real' music. People could therefore be more willing to download WYL if the album cover suggests something other than comedy music. This could lead to a whole new bunch of Al fans who listen to WYL and think 'this ain't bad...Im gonna listen to more of this Al guy'

Well, thats what I think anyway.

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:41 pm**

You could have a point there

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:19 pm**

DonnaNoble @ November 16, 2008 01:57 am wrote: While WYL is an awesome song, people aren't going to KNOW that before they buy it... I think a funny cover would have helped this song out a lot!!!

I know I sound like a broken record here, but I still think he made a huge mistake giving the parody the exact same title as the original song. I guess he was counting on people searching iTunes for "Whatever You Like" but if he had called it something else and had "(Parody of 'Whatever You Like' by T.I.)" afterwards, it still would've shown up. Don't get me wrong; the main reason WYL didn't make a huge impact like "Amish Paradise," "Eat It," or "White and Nerdy" is the lack of a video, because that's always been the #1 promotional tool for Al in getting his songs out to the masses. But the reused title and artwork that didn't exactly emphasize "Weird Al release" couldn't have helped.

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:11 pm**

AlejandraDD @ November 16, 2008 05:46 am wrote: Once again, it's the dog that makes it funny.

I think it's the Al posing like the stereotypical rap star album cover pose that makes it funny.

Posted: **Mon Nov 17, 2008 4:30 am**

wrong