Polka Party!

is the fourth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on October 21, 1986.

Recorded between April and September 1986,[1] the album was Yankovic's follow-up to his successful 1985 release, Dare to Be Stupid.

is one of Yankovic's few studio albums not to be certified either Gold or Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Yankovic entered the recording studio in April 1986 to begin the sessions to his follow-up to 1985's Dare to Be Stupid.

[2] Backing Yankovic were Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, Steve Jay on bass, and Jim West on guitar.

The final session, which lasted from August 29 to September 1, produced the parody "Toothless People", an original song named "Good Enough for Now", and the album's titular polka medley.

[1] Although "Don't Wear Those Shoes" is an original composition, Yankovic admitted that the intro was inspired by the style of The Kinks.

Described as a "tongue-in-cheek look at office life", the song was inspired by Yankovic's past experience of working in the mailroom and traffic department at the Westwood One radio station.

[5] He noted, "At first I thought [the job] was kinda cool that I had a phone and a desk and a little cubicle to call my own, but after a while I felt like my soul had been sucked out of me.

"[5] After the song's release, some radio stations banned the record, a move that Yankovic attributes to "most people [not wanting] to hear about nuclear annihilation during the holiday season.

[7][8] Yankovic wanted the song to receive a video, but due to budget reasons, his label did not agree.

Yankovic, however, directed one himself which was mostly made up of stock footage, with a live action finale that was filmed in a run-down part of the Bronx, New York that "looked like a bomb had fallen on it.

Scotti Brothers Records "had some very strong ideas" and wished to have Yankovic parody a musician who was signed on the same label.

"[5] A choreographer named Chester Whitmore was hired to accurately create the dance scenes featured in the video, which was shot on the concert set actually used in the movie Rocky IV.

[5][13] According to Yankovic, Peter Wolf, the man who wrote "Who's Johnny", enjoyed the parody idea so much that he personally brought into the studio the floppy disc that contained the song's programmed synthesizer parts.

Assuming the song would be a hit, Yankovic requested and received permission from Jagger to record a parody version.

"[18] Chadbourne was largely critical of the parody choices, noting that many of the original versions would be forgotten in "fifteen years".

"[10] Thelen heavily criticized the record, writing that both the parodies and originals were not good and that "Yankovic [was] going through the motions".

[20] Although it was not a critical success, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1987,[21] but lost to Bill Cosby's Those of You with or Without Children, You'll Understand.

Yankovic's song "Dog Eat Dog" served as a style parody of Talking Heads (pictured).
The album's lead parody, "Living with a Hernia", is a parody of James Brown 's ( pictured ) single " Living in America ".