Welcome to the wild world of “Weird Al” Yankovic – a world populated by a Pennsylvania Dutch gangsta-rapper (“Amish Paradise”) and a serial-killing Saint Nick (“The Night Santa Went Crazy”) – a world where people frantically search for their Liquid Paper, hallucinate about the floating disembodied head of Colonel Sanders and dream of one day visiting “The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota.” Yankovic, a three-time Grammy Award winner and the biggest selling comedy recording artist in history, shows no mercy to cultural milestones of every stripe – from Jurassic Park and Star Wars to the hits of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Nirvana, Queen, Puff Daddy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Backstreet Boys, R. Kelly and Green Day, to name just a few.

All of these touchstone Weird Al scenarios (and many more), as personally selected by the man himself, are gathered together on THE ESSENTIAL “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC, his first major collection in a decade and a half. The 38-song, 2½ hour-plus double-CD package, featuring a foreword by NPR Music Editor Stephen Thompson, will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting October 27th through Way Moby/Volcano/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

THE ESSENTIAL “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC is currently the most extensive and up-to-date (and only multi-CD) compendium of his work available. This newest addition to Legacy’s prestigious, critically acclaimed Essential Series also marks the first collected appearances of selections from Weird Al’s most recent studio albums of the late-’90s and ’00s, namely Bad Hair Day (1996), Running with Scissors (1999), Poodle Hat (2003), and Straight Outta Lynwood (2006).

The release of THE ESSENTIAL “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC follows the August 25th arrival at iTunes, Amazon and all other online retailers of Internet Leaks on Volcano/Jive. The digital-only EP gathers five new audio tracks that Al personally “leaked” to the Internet over the past 12 months, starting with “Whatever You Like” (October 2008), a parody of the T.I. hit of the same name. Four more songs followed over a ten-week period this summer, each with an accompanying music video, including “Craigslist,” an homage to The Doors featuring original Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek (video directed by Liam Lynch), and a White Stripes sound-alike ode to the super-human powers of classic TV icon Charles Nelson Reilly (video by the JibJab team).

All five tracks from Internet Leaks will be included on Yankovic’s next studio album, which is tentatively scheduled for a 2010 release. Fans who buy the Internet Leaks EP or any of its individual tracks will be able to deduct the cost when they purchase the full album by using iTunes’ “Complete My Album” function.

Available at both physical and digital retail outlets starting October 27, 2009, through Way Moby/Volcano/Legacy