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Look Around: Lin-Manuel Miranda Announces 'Weird Al' Yankovic's 'Hamilton Polka'

Anyone who follows Lin-Manuel Miranda or "Weird Al" Yankovic on Twitter knows that the two are friends and mutual admirers. So it's not a huge surprise to hear that they've announced a collaboration of sorts: Yankovic and his band have recorded "The Hamilton Polka," a five-minute polka-fied distillation of Miranda's hit musical, released as part of the latter's "HamilDrops" series. (Here's another recent entry: The Decemberists' take on the Hamilton outtake "Ben Franklin's Song.")

Yankovic has been doing "Stars On 45"-inspired polka medleys since his second album, In 3-D, all the way back in 1984. They typically incorporate impeccably played, rapid-fire renditions of the biggest hits of the day, with an emphasis on silly (or, better yet, self-important) source material. As for "The Hamilton Polka," it provides what's essentially a CliffsNotes-style run-through of the musical's hooks and highlights — just enough to get the entire musical stuck in your head all over again.

[Disclosure: This article's author wrote the liner notes to a 2009 "Weird Al" Yankovic CD compilation, but did not request or receive payment.]

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)