In 3-d Atlanta GA

In 3-d

"Weird Al" Yankovic

Volcano Records, 1984

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/09/2000

"Eat It" was the song that made "Weird Al" Yankovic a star. In 3-D, his second album, was the vehicle that carried himto that level of fame - and it showed how much Yankovic and hisband had improved and matured since his debut release.

Yet somehow this album has been forgotten by time, though "EatIt" has taken on a life of its own. Even I was surprised by myrealization that it had been years since I had listened to thisdisc in its entirety. (There was a time, when I was 14 years old,that you would have had to held a gun to my head in order to getthis record off my turntable.)

Even today, as we inch closer to the 20th anniversary of In 3-D's release, many of the jokes are suprisingly fresh,although this isn't a perfect album. Still, Yankovic comesclose.

Parody-wise, Yankovic still always managed to throw a differentloop into the music to make it sound different than the song it wasbased on. (I happen to like the fact that Yankovic now writesparodies to sound exactly like the original song.) As a result,"Theme From Rocky XIII" doesn't have the crispness as the originalsong from Survivor did, "The Brady Bunch" is sped up (in both tempoand pitch) from Men Without Hats's "The Safety Dance", and "Eat It"takes Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and raises the pitch.