The Food Album
The Food Album is a compilation album by American singer-songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on June 22, 1993, by Scotti Brothers Records. The release features ten of Yankovic's song parodies, all of which pertain to food. A similar album, The TV Album, which features songs entirely about television, would be released two years later.
The album was begrudgingly released by Yankovic, who felt that the compilation was unnecessary and merely a way for his record label to make money. Several food-related songs that Yankovic had recorded, such as "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch" and "Waffle King", were left off the record, although the former was due to personal preference, while the latter was due to scheduling issues.
The Food Album received mixed reviews from music critics, many of whom felt that the record was an enjoyable collection of songs, but that it was not an essential record to purchase. Despite the lukewarm reception, the record was certified Gold by the Recording [Industry Association of America], making it Yankovic's first and only compilation record to reach this certification.
Production
Music
The songs featured on The Food Album span a decade, with the earliest tracks dating from 1982 and the most recent from 1992. Two songs were taken from Yankovic's eponymous debut album: "I Love Rocky Road" and "My Bologna". Both "Eat It" and "Theme from Rocky XIII " were taken from the 1984 release, "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D. "Addicted to Spuds" originally appeared on the 1986 release Polka Party!, and "Fat" and "Lasagna" were taken from Yankovic's 1988 release Even Worse. "Spam" was released on the UHF – [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff|soundtrack] to the 1989 film UHF. The final two songs—"The White Stuff" and "Taco Grande"—were taken from the 1992 album Off the Deep End.Notable for its absence is "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch", from Dare to Be Stupid. According to Yankovic, this was due to a "royalty ceiling" on the album, which required that he pick one song to exclude from the release in order for it to be profitable. Yankovic chose to exclude "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch" because he disliked the song, as his record label had forced him to record it in order to release Dare to Be Stupid back in 1985. Also absent from the album is "Waffle King." The song had originally been recorded for Off the Deep End. However, Yankovic decided to swap "Waffle King" with "I Was Only Kidding"—a song he had actually recorded for his next album—at the last minute; this forced Yankovic to shelve "Waffle King" for the time being. The song was first released on "Smells Like Nirvana" single, as well as Yankovic's eighth studio album, Alapalooza, which was released four months after The Food Album.
Release
The album was released by Scotti Brothers Records and was only begrudgingly approved by Yankovic. At the time, Scotti Brothers had insisted on putting out a new album by Yankovic in order to meet monetary projections at the time, despite the fact that no new album was ready. The label originally proposed a release entitled Al Unplugged, which would have featured studio remixes of previously released material, with the electronic instruments missing; the label also wanted the cover to feature Yankovic holding the cords of unplugged kitchen appliances. Yankovic did not enjoy this idea and convinced them to instead release The Food Album—"a concept hated only slightly less"—but would later describe it as a "cheesy compilation" put out "against better wishes and judgement."The TV Album was released under similar circumstances in 1995; however, when it came time to release the latter album, Yankovic reported that "the record company was a whole lot nicer when they asked the second time", and that there was "more groveling less demanding". Following the release of The Food Album and The TV Album—in addition to the various greatest hits records that had been released—Scotti Brothers used-up all of their compilation options in Yankovic's contract, which prevented the release of further compilations when Volcano Records acquired his contract in the late 1990s.