“Weird Al” Yankovic
ListenTake Me Down · 1978
Alfred Yankovic — “Take Me Down,” recorded in 1978 and issued on SLO Grown.
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1979 · San Luis Records
“Take Me Down” on SLO Grown
An apartment recording, a chorus of neighbourhood children and a local benefit LP gave Alfred Yankovic his first commercial record appearance. “Take Me Down” captures the student musician before “Weird Al” became a nationally familiar name. [1] [2]
| Accession | OMMA-0001 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Alfred Yankovic, with Tom Walters, Jon Iverson and Joel Miller |
| Release | 1979 · United States |
| Label | San Luis Records · No catalogue number |
| Format | 12-inch compilation LP |
| Issue | Original local benefit compilation |
| Runouts | Not documented |
| Recorded grade | Sealed · VG+ sleeve |
Release history and significance
Jon Iverson, Yankovic’s former roommate, recalled recording “Take Me Down” upstairs in their living room at Foothill Garden Apartments in San Luis Obispo. His Teac 2340 four-track reel-to-reel recorder captured Yankovic’s accordion and vocal, Iverson’s guitar and bass, Tom Walters’s mandolin, and Joel Miller’s bongos. Iverson and Walters also sang backing vocals. [2]
For the ending, they gathered children from the apartment complex to join the chorus. Iverson remembered that the roommates were also playing locally and developing food-themed parodies of late-1970s rock songs—including “My Bologna.” The session was part of a small, sociable musical life around Cal Poly. [2]
The recording appears as the fourth track on side B of SLO Grown, a compilation benefiting the Economic Opportunity Commission of San Luis Obispo County. Prepared with a 1978 copyright and released in April 1979, the LP placed Yankovic among other local musicians. [1]
Market context
Discogs sales for SLO Grown range from US$30 to US$200, with a median of US$62.50, as listed on 13 September 2026. The latest recorded sale was 1 July 2026. [1]
Physical Description
A twelve-inch LP in its original illustrated picture sleeve, still enclosed in shrink wrap with a Cheap Thrills price sticker. The wrap has a split of about one and a half inches on the reverse.
Condition
Sealed, with the sleeve graded VG+ for small bumps at all four corners.
Provenance
Acquired through eBay from seller fizdryypz on 2 February 2025. This was OMMA’s first accession.
The seller wrote: “I was actually a student at Cal Poly in SLO when I picked up that record,” and remembered hearing stories about Yankovic’s student years. They described the record store’s upstairs vinyl room as an old storage attic, with inventory that appeared not to have moved for years, and wondered whether this copy might have been there since 1978.
Responding to a photograph of the copy, Iverson recalled that San Luis Records, part of Square Deal Records and associated with Cheap Thrills, distributed the album for the EOC. He remembered remaining boxes being sold through the shop in the 2000s and suggested that copies had been rewrapped then. He identified the Cheap Thrills sticker as consistent with a local purchase during that period. [2]
Sources
- Discogs, Various — SLO Grown, release 4165568. San Luis Records compilation, personnel, April 1979 release and sales history.
- Jon Iverson, recollections of Take Me Down and SLO Grown. Firsthand account of the apartment session and later local distribution.
- fizdryypz, seller correspondence. Recollections supplied with the acquisition; retained in the provenance documentation.
- WeirdAl.com, Recording Dates. Dates the Take Me Down session to mid-1978.
Catalogue text reviewed 13 September 2026.