Peter & the Wolf ("Weird Al" Yankovic and Wendy Carlos album)

Peter & the Wolf/Carnival of the Animals – Part II is a studio album by American parody singer-songwriter and musician "Weird Al" Yankovic and composer and keyboardist Wendy Carlos, released in October 1988 on CBS Records. It features a comical adaptation of the orchestral works Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev and The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Peter & the Wolf
Studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic and Wendy Carlos
Released	October 4, 1988
Recorded	September 1988
Genre	Comedy
Length	57:57
Label	CBS
Producer	"Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic chronology
Even Worse (1988) Peter & the Wolf (1988) "Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits (1988)
Wendy Carlos chronology
Secrets of Synthesis (1987) Peter & the Wolf (1988) Switched-On Bach 2000 (1992)

Accolades

The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Album for Children at the 31st ceremony.^[1][2]

Background

Wendy Carlos was invited by CBS Records to work on the project with Yankovic. She had greatly enjoyed the collaboration, later recounting that "the project was a chance for some musical fun and tomfoolery, working with a bright, witty collaborator, before getting back to more adventurous tuning and timbre projects."^[3] Carlos wrote new music for both stories.

Tracks

"Peter and the Wolf" track reprises the original story, with some humorous changes. The animals are named: Billy the Bird, Bruce the Duck, Louie the Cat, and Seymour the Wolf. There is also a new minor character named Bob the Janitor, represented musically by Yankovic's signature instrument, the accordion.^[4] After a long conflict between Peter and the wolf, Peter catches the wolf with dental floss. The moral of the story is "Oral hygiene is very important, make sure you see your dentist at least twice a year".

"The Carnival of the Animals – Part Two" is a parody of The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns.^[5] The introduction explains: "Camille, in his research, was slightly behind, and I guess that some critters just plain slipped his mind, so to fill in this void in the Animal Kingdom, I'll read some new verses. I'm not gonna sing 'em."

Release

On the LP and cassette releases, each side is one continuous track; the CD separates the parts of side 2. As of 2022, the CD, LP, and cassette releases of Peter and the Wolf are all out of print and have become collector's items, all of which going for very high prices on both Amazon and eBay.^[6]

Track listing

LP/Cassette

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Peter and the Wolf"	31:51

Side two

No.	Title	Length
2.	"The Carnival of the Animals – Part Two"	26:06

CD

No.	Title	Length
1.	"(Peter and the Wolf) Introduction"	3:58
2.	"Peter and the Wolf"	27:52
3.	"Introduction (Carnival of the Animals - Part Two)"	1:20
4.	"Aardvark"	1:47
5.	"Hummingbirds"	0:58
6.	"Snails"	2:03
7.	"Alligator"	1:15
8.	"Amoeba"	1:52
9.	"Pigeons"	1:56
10.	"Shark"	2:17
11.	"Cockroaches"	1:40
12.	"Iguana"	0:35
13.	"Vulture"	3:14
14.	"Unicorn"	1:25
15.	"Poodle"	2:51
16.	"Finale"	2:53

References

1. Steve Johnson, "Weirdly Normal: Pop-tune Buster Al Yankovic Saves Worst Wackiness For The Screen", Chicago Tribune, July 25, 1989.
2. 31st Annual GRAMMY Awards|1988|GRAMMY.com
3. Carlos, Wendy. "P+W Notes". WendyCarlos.com. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
4. Howard Reich, "'Weird Al' takes on the classics", Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1988.
5. "Picks and Pans Review: 'Peter & the Wolf'", People, November 21, 1988.
6. Amazon.com