UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff is the sixth studio album and soundtrack album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on July 18, 1989. The album is the final of Yankovic's to be produced by former McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer. Recorded between December 1988 and May 1989, the album served as the official soundtrack to the 1989 film of the same name, although the original score by John Du Prez is omitted. The album's lead single was the titular "UHF", although it was not a hit and did not chart.
The music on UHF is built around pastiches of rock, rap, and pop music of the late 1980s, featuring parodies of songs by Dire Straits, Tone Lōc, Fine Young Cannibals, and R.E.M. The album also features many "style parodies", or musical imitations of existing artists. These style parodies include imitations of specific artists like Harry Chapin, as well as various musical genres like blues. The album also features many music cuts from the film as well as some of the commercials, like "Spatula City", and other parody bits, like "Gandhi II".
Peaking at No. 146 on the Billboard 200, the album was not a commercial success, and received lukewarm critical attention. The UHF soundtrack is one of Yankovic's few studio albums not certified either Gold or Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States. It would also be Yankovic's last studio album to be released on vinyl record in the U.S. until 2011's Alpocalypse.
Production
Background and recording
Following the success of Yankovic's 1988 album Even Worse, which featured the Michael Jackson spoof "Fat", Yankovic pitched a screenplay co-written by his manager Jay Levey called UHF (internationally known as The Vidiot from UHF) to Orion Pictures. A satire of the television and film industries, the film starred Yankovic as George Newman, a man who stumbles into managing a low-budget UHF television station and finds success with his eclectic programming choices. Also starring Michael Richards, Fran Drescher, and Victoria Jackson, it brought the floundering studio Orion their highest test scores since the movie RoboCop. Although the movie made slightly over US$6 million domestically—out of a budget of $5 million—it was considered unsuccessful. Recording with Yankovic were Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, Steve Jay on bass, and Jim West on guitar. The album was recorded in six different sessions at both Santa Monica Sound Records in Santa Monica, California and Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles. During the first session, the song "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" was recorded. The second session yielded the titular "UHF" and "Let Me Be Your Hog". During the third session, Yankovic recorded "Stanley Spadowski's Theme"—which would later be renamed "Fun Zone"—as well as the skit "Gandhi II". Only one song was recorded during the fourth sessions, the skit "Spatula City". The fifth recording session resulted in five songs: "Spam", "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters From a Planet Near Mars", "Hot Rocks Polka", "Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota", and "Generic Blues". The sixth and final session produced the two parodies "Isle Thing" and "She Drives Like Crazy".
Originals
On February 24, 1989, Yankovic recorded the first original song for the album, "Let Me Be Your Hog". The song is a short rock snippet that is heard in the movie as Newman's uncle Harvey (Stanley Brock) lounges in his pool. Originally, Yankovic had wanted to use the 1974 single "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas for the scene, but he could not obtain the rights for the song, and thus "Let Me Be Your Hog" was recorded.
Parodies and polka
thumb|240px|left|[[Dire Straits' guitarist Mark Knopfler specifically asked to play guitar on Yankovic's parody.]]
On December 20, 1988, Yankovic recorded "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies"<!-- The asterisk is not to be found on the album, or any of its releases; it's merely the legal name, so we need not list it everywhere. A discussion of the name is included later in the article -->. The song features the lyrics of The Beverly Hillbillies theme song altered slightly and set to the tune of "Money for Nothing". The song appears in its entirety within UHF as a computer-animated dream sequence, framed as if it were part of a music video. Prince, however, refused, and was unreceptive to any parody ideas Yankovic ever presented him with. The fractured titled "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" is a result of Dire Straits' lawyers insisting that "Money for Nothing" remain in the parody's title. and because it is not written that way on the album itself, Another Tone Lōc hit, "Funky Cold Medina", is referenced in the lyrics: "Ginger and Mary Ann coulda used some funky cold medina". Artists and videos parodied included Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle", ZZ Top's "Legs", the Beatles' "Your Mother Should Know", George Michael's "Faith", Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love", Prince's "When Doves Cry" and "1999", Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" and "Girlfriend Is Better", Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer", Billy Idol's "White Wedding" and "Rebel Yell", INXS's "Mediate", and Randy Newman's "I Love L.A.".
Reception
Critical response
Due to the short stint of UHF in theaters, its soundtrack got "lost in the shuffle" and did not receive much of a critical response.
Commercial performance
UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff was released July 18, 1989. After it was released, the album peaked at number 146 on the Billboard 200.