Jurassic Park (song)

{{Infobox song

| name = Jurassic Park

| cover = Jurassic Park (Weird Al Yankovic single - cover art).jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = "Weird Al" Yankovic

| album = Alapalooza

| B-side = "Frank's 2000" TV"

| released = October 1993

| recorded = July 16, 1993

| studio =

| venue =

| genre =

| length = 3:53

| label = Scotti Brothers

| writer =

| producer = "Weird Al" Yankovic

| prev_title = Taco Grande

| prev_year = 1992

| next_title = Bedrock Anthem

| next_year = 1993

| misc = {{External music video|{{YouTube|gh4zvQfDhi0|"Jurassic Park"}}}}

}}

"Jurassic Park" is a parody of Richard Harris's version of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park", written and performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic; it was released both as a single and as part of Yankovic's Alapalooza album in October 1993. "Jurassic Park" was penned by Yankovic after he remembered the enjoyment he had when he combined a classic rock track with a recent movie theme with his 1985 song "Yoda". Yankovic decided to combine the plot of the recent movie Jurassic Park—a film about a park on a fictional island where geneticists have succeeded in cloning dinosaurs—with the classic Richard Harris track "MacArthur Park".

The song was paired with an elaborately animated music video, which was created by Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund almost entirely via claymation. The video did not receive extensive play on MTV, although it was popular on The Box, VH1, and in Canada, where it was played on MuchMusic. The video, due to its animation, also later went on to be praised at various animation festivals worldwide.

"Jurassic Park" was met with mixed to positive reviews; while many reviewers enjoyed Yankovic's humor, others felt that the song did not satirize the source material, but instead merely recounted the plot to the movie. Webb himself was very pleased with the final result and has been known to sing the parody lyrics in concert. Although the single did not chart in the United States, it peaked at number 5 on the Canadian magazine The Record{{'}}s single chart. The video was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video at the 37th Grammy Awards, although it did not win.

Writing

Yankovic was inspired to write the song after he heard The Kinks' song "Lola" while driving in his car one day, noting, "I was driving a rent-a-car through Florida when the song 'Lola' came on the radio, and it got me thinking about how much fun I had doing 'Yoda' [a song from 1985's Dare to Be Stupid] where I took a then-current topic and combined it with a classic rock tune." He soon turned his attention to the then-recently-released film Jurassic Park, based on the eponymous 1990 novel by Michael Crichton, which involved a group of scientists visiting the titular park located on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, where geneticists have successfully created genetically-engineered dinosaurs. Deciding to write a parody about the movie, he considered various songs to spoof, eventually deciding on the 1968 hit single "MacArthur Park", which was performed by Richard Harris. Yankovic approached the original song's writer, Jimmy Webb, who agreed to the idea and was so amused by the parody that he later penned a letter to Yankovic that read, "Well, [this parody] oughta {{sic}} bury that song once and for all!"{{cite web|last=Yankovic|first=Alfred M.|title='Ask Al' Q&As for April, 1999|url=http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/ask-al/#0499|work=The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site|access-date=April 28, 2013|date=April 1999}} Additionally, Crichton and director Steven Spielberg permitted Yankovic to produce the track.{{cite AV media notes|title = Permanent Record: Al in the Box|year = 1994|url = http://dmdb.org/al/booklet.html|first = Barret|last = Hansen|author-link = Dr. Demento|type = liner|publisher = Scotti Brothers Records|location = California, United States}}

Recording and lyrics

{{Listen|filename=Weird Al Yankovic Jurassic Park sample.ogg|title="Jurassic Park" (sample)|description="Jurassic Park", from Yankovic's 1993 album Alapalooza. Parodying "MacArthur Park" by Jimmy Webb, although the song was originally performed by Richard Harris in 1968, the lyrics talk about the narrator's visit to Jurassic Park and all the bad things that followed.|format=Ogg}}

Yankovic entered the studio to record "Jurassic Park" on July 16, 1993.{{Cite web| url = http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/recording-dates/ | title = Recording Dates | access-date = June 26, 2010 | last = Yankovic | first = Alfred M. | author-link = "Weird Al" Yankovic |date=December 2007 | work = The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site}} Backing Yankovic were Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, Steve Jay on bass, and Jim West on guitar. "MacArthur Park" contained an actual orchestra complete with a strings section.{{cite web | url=http://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/afmcontracts/Harris,Richard_MacArthurPark.pdf | title=Harris, Richard MacArthur Park – Phonograph Recording Contract | publisher=The Wrecking Crew | access-date=April 18, 2012}} "Jurassic Park", however, features synth strings courtesy of keyboardist Brad Buxer, who programmed the section himself.{{Cite web| url = http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/players/| title = Players| access-date = June 26, 2010| work = The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site}} Intermixed during the interlude are various dinosaur sound effects courtesy of Sandy Berman; Berman had previously created similar sounds for a theme park attraction, and loaned Yankovic the sound effects.{{cite web | last = Yankovic | first = Alfred M. | title = 'Ask Al' Q&As for August, 1999 | url = http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/ask-al/#0899 | work= The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site | access-date = June 23, 2010 |date=August 1999}} At 3:53 in length, the song is considerably shorter than the original, which clocks in at 7:21.{{cite AV media notes|title = A Tramp Shining|last = Harris |first=Richard|year = 1968|type = liner|publisher = Dunhill Records}} Largely, this is due to the fact that the middle section featured in the original—the so called "After the Loves of My Life" section—is omitted from Yankovic's parody.{{cite book|title=The 'Weird Al' Yankovic Anthology: Piano – Vocal – Guitar|publisher=Cherry Lane Music|isbn=9781575600215|date=July 1, 1996}}{{cite book|title=MacArthur Park (Sheet Music)|year=1968|publisher=Canopy Music|url=https://www.amazon.com/MacArthur-Park-Richard-Harris/dp/B000PI5W4Q|asin=B000PI5W4Q}}

The song itself recounts both the plot of the movie, and contains various in-jokes and references therein. One line about lawyers—"A huge tyrannosaurus ate our lawyer{{nbsp}}/ Well, I suppose that proves they're really not all bad"—was deliberately placed in the song to be ambiguous, as it could either be referring to lawyers or dinosaurs as being "not all bad".{{cite web | last = Yankovic | first = Alfred M. | title = 'Ask Al' Q&As for December, 1998 | url = http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/ask-al/#1298 | work= The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site | access-date = June 23, 2010 |date=December 1998}} The song also makes various pop culture references, mentioning both E tickets and Barney.{{cite AV media notes|title = Alapalooza|last=Yankovic|first=Al|year = 1993|type = liner|publisher = Scotti Brothers Records}}

Music video

File:WeirdAlJurassicParkVideo.jpg version of "Weird Al" Yankovic, surrounded by dinosaurs. The video was directed by Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund, and completed in two months.|250px]]

When it came time for a video for "Jurassic Park", Yankovic opted to use stop-motion and claymation; he joked during a Q&A that this was because "it's just too hard to find real live dinosaurs these days."{{cite web|last=Yankovic|first=Alfred M.|title='Ask Al' Q&As for September, 1999|url=http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/ask-al/#0999|work=The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site|access-date=April 28, 2013|date=September 1999}} "Jurassic Park" was Yankovic's first video that was entirely animated—previous videos, such as "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" and "Dare to Be Stupid" had featured elements of animation.{{Citation|last=Yankovic|first=Alfred |publisher = Volcano Records | title = Jurassic Park | work = 'Weird Al' Yankovic Official Limited Edition Trading Cards| number = 50|year=2013}} The video was directed by Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund.{{cite AV media notes |title= 'Weird Al' Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection |orig-year= 2003 |last1=Levey |first1=Jay|first2=Al|last2=Yankovic |publisher= Volcano Entertainment |id= 82876-53727-9 |year= 2003}} Yankovic initially heard of the duo from Bill Manspeaker, the lead singer of the comedy rock band Green Jellÿ. After being hired for the project, the two "basically turned a private residence in Los Angeles into a clay animation studio." The two worked between July and August 1993, and slept in shifts, so that the final project would be ready for its release in October 1993. Yankovic remained hands-off in its creation, allowing the two full creative freedom for the video.{{cite web | url = https://www.vulture.com/2014/07/history-behind-12-great-weird-al-videos.html | title = The History Behind 12 Great Weird Al Videos | first= Alex | last = Suskind | date = July 15, 2014 | access-date = July 24, 2019 | work = Vulture }} One critic noted that the music video seems to have been done in the style of Will Vinton's Dinosaur! A Fun-Filled Trip Back in Time!{{cite web|last=Hazen|first=Natalie|title=For Nearly Three Decades...|url=http://splitsider.com/?ich_pagination_single_page_view=15968|publisher=Splitsider.com|access-date=April 28, 2013}} The video parodies scenes from, as well as the general plot of, the 1993 movie, and contains a myriad of sight-gags—as is usual for Yankovic's videos—such as a claymation version of Steven Spielberg running from dinosaurs, Barney having his head bitten off, and a Velociraptor attempting to break down a door, only to realize it has a key.

Release

=Reception=

"Jurassic Park" was released as the lead single from Yankovic's 1993 album Alapalooza. The single did not chart in the United States, but it sold well in Canada, where it peaked at number 5 on the Canadian magazine The Record{{'}}s single chart. The video for "Jurassic Park" received light rotation on MTV. Yankovic later explained in an interview that "[MTV] played it a few times, and then just yanked it, because it wasn't really part of their sound."{{cite interview | last = Yankovic | first = Alfred M. | interviewer = Jeff Elbel | title = Visions of Gray |date=February 1995 | access-date = June 23, 2010 | url = http://www.al-oholicsanonymous.com/interviews/vog.txt }}{{cite web | last = Yankovic | first = Alfred M. | title = 'Ask Al' Q&As for January, 2000 | url = http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/ask-al/#0100 |date=January 2000 | work = The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site | access-date = June 23, 2010}} In contrast, the single was a success on The Box and they played it "incessantly". Furthermore, in Canada, the song was a massive success on MuchMusic, making Alapalooza Yankovic's best selling album in Canada, with over 200,000 units sold, according to Music Canada. However, the video was played and remained popular on VH1 well after its release; it ranked within the Top 50 Most-Played Clips during the months of August and September 1999, according to Billboard magazine.{{cite magazine|title=Video Monitor|magazine=Billboard|date=Aug 21, 1999|volume=111|issue=34|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nAgEAAAAMBAJ&q=jurassic+park+weird+al&pg=PA79|access-date=April 28, 2013}}{{cite magazine|title=Video Monitor|magazine=Billboard|date=Sep 25, 1999|volume=111|issue=39|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cAgEAAAAMBAJ&q=jurassic+park+weird+al&pg=PA98|access-date=April 28, 2013}} The video for "Jurassic Park" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video at the 37th Grammy Awards,{{cite news|url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-06-ca-17089-story.html|title = The 37th Grammy Nominations|page = 16|date = January 6, 1995|access-date = June 14, 2012|newspaper= Los Angeles Times}} but lost to the video for "Love Is Strong" by The Rolling Stones.{{cite web|title = 1994 Best Music Video, Short Form|work = Past Winners Search|publisher = National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences|year = 1995|url = http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=&title=&year=1994&genre=18|access-date = June 14, 2012}} Nonetheless, it received attention in animation festivals worldwide for its use of claymation effects.

Jimmy Webb was particularly pleased with the finished product. According to Yankovic, several times during different concerts in New York and Los Angeles that Yankovic was in attendance, Webb would start to perform the original, feign forgetting the words, and then invite Yankovic on stage to help him sing "Jurassic Park" instead. For a Christmas present one year, Webb even sent Yankovic a rubber dinosaur mask as a joke. Yankovic later noted that Webb "was the coolest".

Yankovic referred to the song during his Rifftrax commentary for Jurassic Park, declaring, "Jurassic Park in the light? Not so frightening."{{Citation|last=RiffTrax|title=RiffTrax - Mike Nelson & "Weird Al" Yankovic - Jurassic Park|date=2008-02-01|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQBj9ER8orM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/cQBj9ER8orM |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|access-date=2017-02-13}}{{cbignore}}

=Reviews=

Chris Hicks of the Deseret News called the single "absolutely hilarious", and rhetorically asked "who else would think of adapting that ridiculously popular movie's themes to new lyrics for Jimmy Webb's classic ditty 'MacArthur Park'?" Hicks felt that the song's funniest moments involved the jokes revolving around lawyers and the mention of Barney.{{cite news|last=Hicks|first=Chris|title=Weird Al's 'Jurassic' is Comedy Classic|url=http://docs.newsbank.com.www2.lib.ku.edu/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:DSNB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F3608B6E4F7C64A&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=0F8479522BD09CA1|access-date=April 28, 2013|newspaper=Deseret News|publisher=Deseret News Publishing Company|date=November 28, 1993}} {{subscription required}} Amanda Cohen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that it combined "the schlock of the original song with schtick about the dinosaur movie" and proved that "Yankovic is as funny as ever". Furthermore, she noted that it was evidence that "his voice improves with every new release".{{cite news|last=Cohen|first=Amanda|title=Entertainment|url=http://docs.newsbank.com.www2.lib.ku.edu/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:PPGB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0EADEEC5A5CAD196&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=0F8479522BD09CA1|access-date=April 28, 2013|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|publisher=Block Communications|date=October 8, 1993}} {{subscription required}} In a review of the Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation, Arthur Salm called the piece a "knockout" and praised the humor, specifically highlighting the claymation cameo of Steven Spielberg and the "goofy velociraptor" from the opening of the video.{{cite news|last=Salm|first=Arthur|title=Wallace, Gromit Return in Delightful Claymation|url=http://docs.newsbank.com.www2.lib.ku.edu/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:SDUB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0EAF84B19FFC0117&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=0F8479522BD09CA1|newspaper=The San Diego Union-Tribune|publisher=MLIM Holdings|access-date=April 28, 2013|date=January 20, 1994}}

Some critics felt that the song did not satirize the source material, but instead merely regurgitated the plot to Jurassic Park. Entertainment Weekly referred to the claymation video for the "Jurassic Park" as "clever but toothless".{{Cite web|url = https://ew.com/article/1994/03/18/alapalooza/|last = Kenny|first = Glenn|title = Alapalooza Review|publisher = Entertainment Weekly|date = March 18, 1994|access-date = June 14, 2012|archive-date = April 21, 2009|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090421094247/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,301506,00.html|url-status = live}} The magazine argued that Yankovic's parody did not lampoon the original material, but instead transposed new elements on top of them. Rob Owen of Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote that the song "does nothing but recount the plot of the hit movie" and that "dinosaurs don't lend themselves to music".{{cite news|last=Owen|first=Rob|title='Weird Al's Latest Venture Into Parody is a Little Weak|url=http://docs.newsbank.com.www2.lib.ku.edu/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:RTDB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F3608B6E4F7C64A&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=0F8479522BD09CA1|access-date=April 28, 2013|newspaper=Richmond Times-Dispatch|publisher=Berkshire Hathaway|date=October 31, 1993}} {{subscription required}}

Track listing

;CD single{{cite AV media notes |title='Jurassic Park' CD single |last=Yankovic|first=Al |year=1993 |type=liner notes |publisher=Scotti Bros. Records |location=California, USA}}

"Jurassic Park" – 3:53
"Frank's 2000" TV" – 4:04

Credits and personnel

"Weird" Al Yankovic – vocals, background vocals, keyboards, production, arrangement
Jim West – guitar
Steve Jay – bass guitar
Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz – drums, tambourine, cymbals and timpani
Brad Buxer – keyboards, synthetic orchestration
Sandy Berman – dinosaur growls
Tony Papa – engineering

Charts

class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" \|+ Chart performance for "Jurassic Park" ! scope="col"\|Chart (1994) ! scope="col"\|Peak position
scope="row"\| Australia (ARIA){{cite Ryan\|page=306}} \| 84
scope="row"\| Canada The Record Singles Chart{{cite magazine\|title=Hits of the World\|magazine=Billboard\|date=February 19, 1994\|volume=106\|issue=8\|access-date=April 28, 2013\|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQgEAAAAMBAJ&q=jurassic+park+weird+al+canada+billboard&pg=PA46}} \| 5

class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ Chart performance for "Jurassic Park"

! scope="col"|Chart (1994)

! scope="col"|Peak
position

scope="row"| Australia (ARIA){{cite Ryan|page=306}}

| 84

scope="row"| Canada The Record Singles Chart{{cite magazine|title=Hits of the World|magazine=Billboard|date=February 19, 1994|volume=106|issue=8|access-date=April 28, 2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQgEAAAAMBAJ&q=jurassic+park+weird+al+canada+billboard&pg=PA46}}

| 5