Just one day after the musical’s release on Disney+, Weird Al Yankovic uploaded a comedic mashup video to go along with his 2018 “Hamilton Polka.”
Parody artist Weird Al is famous for his mashup polkas of famous songs. His first polka, “Polkas on 45,” was released in 1984. Weird Al has continued to make polkas throughout the decades using each generation’s music. His most recent is “NOW That’s What I Call Polka!,” which was released in 2014 and features songs by Miley Cyrus, One Direction, Daft Punk, and more.
The single was released in 2018 as a part of the Hamildrop series, where different artists made remixes of Hamilton content throughout the year. Miranda has been a fan of Yankovic since he was a kid, and hearing the song was a dream come true for him. He and Weird Al have been good friends for some time, and Yankovic describes Hamilton as “maybe the greatest piece of art [he’s] ever seen,” so he pulled out all the stops to make sure that the “Hamilton Polka” was perfect.
The “Hamilton Polka” is Weird Al’s third polka to use songs by only one artist. “The Hot Rocks Polka” features songs only by The Rolling Stones, and his “Bohemian Polka” mashes up Queen’s famous “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The “Hamilton Polka” still made history as being the first time Yankovic used multiple songs by one artist but from just one album.
He features some of the most popular songs from the show, including: “Alexander Hamilton,” “Wait For It,” “The Schulyer Sisters,” “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down),” “You’ll Be Back,” “The Room Where It Happens,” “Right Hand Man,” “Guns and Ships,” “Washington On Your Side,” “Non Stop,” “History Has its Eyes On You,” and “My Shot.”
Even with the songs’ uniformity, Weird Al manages to stay true to his style and add silliness to the single. The comically edited lip syncs of the video feature the 2016 cast of Hamilton performing Weird Al’s vocals. The actors’ dancing and blocking for each song is shown, finishing with the cast’s final bow.
