Weird Al Yankovic 'Mandatory Fun' Album: Parody Artist Reaches No. 1 On Billboard 200, First Comedy CD To Do So Since 1960 [VIDEO]
It took 14 albums, and over 30 years, but Weird Al Yankovic finally has a number one album in the United States.
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On Wednesday, Vulture reported that Weird Al's Mandatory Fun album sits atop the Billboard charts, giving the preeminent parody artist of all-time the top album, something many of the popular musicians he's parodied can't even say.
Mandatory Fun sold a reported 104,700 copies, which is the most Yankovic has ever sold in a week. This is the first time a comedy album has finished atop the charts since all the way back in 1960, when Bob Newhart's The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was the number one album. To put that into perspective, Newhart's album was a conversation point in the first season of Mad Men. What Yankovic has done is truly unusual.
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Yankovic pulled out all the stops for Mandatory Fun, which is reportedly his final full-length album. He dropped eight music videos in eight days, and made an abundance of press appearances. It clearly worked, given the success of this album. It's truly impressive to see Yankovic having his greatest success at this point in his career. His first album came out back in 1983, and he had never come close to having the number one album before, even during the days of his Michael Jackson parodies, when there was more of a musical monoculture. Of course, 30 years of service will give you a built in fan base, and the music videos certainly couldn't have hurt, because nearly every pop culture website wrote about them.
Not only have we seen Yankovic's first, and almost assuredly last, number one album, this could also be the last time a comedy album finishes number one as well.
