Despite the fact that he’s a comedy legend and the king of parody music albums, “Weird Al” Yankovic has never had a No. 1 album on the Billboard charts in his 31 years in the business. His 2011 effort “Alpocalypse” debuted at No. 9, which was the highest mark of his career, as 2006’s “Straight Outta Lynwood” debuted at No. 10 and “Bad Hair Day” at No. 14 ten years before it. Despite the progression of his chart success as Weird Al has gotten older, you wouldn’t think that his biggest moment might be coming at age 54, but as Billboard reports, “Mandatory Fun” will undoubtedly be his greatest debut to date, and it could even end up being his first No. 1 album. The only man who stands in the way is… Jason Mraz.
Yes, both Weird Al and Mraz, AKA Mr. A to Z and the man with too many pork pie hats, are on pace to sell north of 70,000 albums this week, which would put them both in the Top 2 on next Wednesday’s new Billboard 200 Top 10. Mraz previously hit the No. 2 spot with “Love is a Four Letter Word” in 2012, so if you ask me, he’s already used to that spot. Basically, he should just concede the No. 1 spot to Yankovic and let the legend have the cherry on top of a week that has undoubtedly belonged to him.
For the sake of fairness, let’s decide which of these artists deserves the top honor based on their lead singles and music videos – I know, just humor me – as Mraz’s “YES!” kicked off with this video for “Hello, You Beautiful Thing.”
As of this morning, that video has 179,000+ views, and probably plenty of people wondering if it was necessary for the camera to be at crotch level. It’s definitely a very sweet vision of a first date being told by a guy wearing his younger brother’s pants. But does it stand a chance against “Tacky”?
Nope. Get that No. 1 album, Weird Al. You’ve earned it.
