The set is housed inside a replica of Yankovic's accordion, whence its name is derived. This "unprecedented" style of packaging caused the entire set to have a rather long lead manufacturing time. Squeeze Box also comes with "a 100-page book including a treasure trove of unseen photos and memorabilia."
Release
A pre-order for the set was released on January 12, 2017 via Pledge Music, almost ten months ahead of its release. This was due to the time it would take for the manufacturer to create the packaging. Fans were able to choose between two versions of the set: one featuring all the albums on vinyl, and the other featuring albums on CD. The CD version will feature the discs themselves housed in custom-fitted pockets in sleeves with standard LP-size jackets. The LP version marks the first time that five of Yankovic's albums appear in a vinyl format. Following the Pledge Music pre-order, only a handful of the sets will be manufactured and released.
Contents
Squeeze Box collects all of Yankovic's 14 studio albums, ranging from his 1983 debut "Weird Al" Yankovic, to his 2014 studio release Mandatory Fun. Six of these records were produced by Rick Derringer. The remaining albums were produced by Yankovic himself. "Weird Al" Yankovic through Bad Hair Day had been released by the now-defunct Scotti Bros. Records, Running with Scissors through Alpocalypse were released by Volcano Entertainment, and Mandatory Fun was released by RCA Records. All three labels are now under the control of Sony Music Entertainment, whose Legacy Recordings unit released the compilation. The songs that are featured in this collection have all been remastered. The fifteenth record, Medium Rarities, is a bonus album composed of new and unreleased content.
Medium Rarities is the name of the fifteenth album included in Squeeze Box. This release, exclusive to this box set, is composed entirely of rare and unreleased tracks from Yankovic's career.
Track listing
Song information
One of the first rarities announced for the album was "Pac-Man", a parody of The Beatles' song "Taxman", and based on the arcade game of the same name. The song had been recorded in 1981, and was popular on the Dr. Demento Show. Yankovic, who recorded the song in a friend's garage on a TEAC Cassette Portastudio, sampled sounds from the actual Pac-Manarcade game for use in the song. After the song was played a few times on Dr. Demento's radio program, the host received a cease-and-desist letter that ordered him to stop airing the spoof. In order to get the song on the Medium Rarities album, Yankovic had to get permission from both Bandai Namco Entertainment as well as the estate of George Harrison. In regards to the former, the company "had a good sense of humor about" the parody. So as to clear the parody with the Harrison estate, Yankovic worked with Dhani Harrison, the son of George Harrison. The musicians on "Pac-Man" include Yankovic, Richard Bennett, Frank Sanchez, and Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz.
