weird al

Biography

After hearing Dr. Demento's radio show (a comedy radio program featuring humorous music), Yankovic sent the Doctor a tape of a song entitled "Belvedere Cruisin'", a song about his family's current vehicle, in 1976. Another song, included on the tape, which never received airtime, was entitled "Dr. D Superstar" and was a parody of "Jesus Christ Superstar"^[1]. He was a senior at Lynwood High School at the time, but that tape was the start of his eventual career.

Three years later, Yankovic was an architecture student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a disc jockey at the university's radio station (KCPR). His air name was "Weird Al", and he has used it since. Although he has claimed that he had been referred to as "Weird Al" during high school, there is no confirming evidence of this. Since "My Sharona" by The Knack was on the charts and The Knack was scheduled to play at Cal Poly, he took his accordion into the restroom across the hall from the radio station (to take advantage of the echo chamber acoustics) and recorded a parody entitled "My Bologna", with a B-side called "School Cafeteria". The Knack met Yankovic after a show at his college, thought the song was funny, and arranged for it to be released on their label, Capitol Records, which gave Yankovic a six-month contract. Dr. Demento's listeners frequently put this track atop his "Funny Five" list.

In 1980, Yankovic was working in the mail room at Westwood One, Dr. Demento's radio network at the time, when he developed another parody called "Another One Rides the Bus", a parody of Queen's hit, "Another One Bites the Dust". While practicing the song outside the sound booth, he ran into Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, who told him he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Yankovic's accordion case to keep a good steady beat to the song. They rehearsed the song just a few times before going live on The Doctor Demento Show. "Another One Rides the Bus" became so popular that it got Yankovic his first television appearance, The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. On the show, he played his accordion, and again, Jon banged on his accordion case, as well as squeaking and blowing some horns and other musical gizmos. The rare 1981 Placebo EP release of this song has the track "Happy Birthday" as a B-side. "Happy Birthday" is a dark song about the world's problems and imminent destruction, with the sarcastic suggestion that denial is the natural solution. The Placebo EP recording of the song was remixed into stereo by Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz in 2005 for inclusion on a Hurricane Katrina charity compilation featuring various other comedy musicians.^[2]

1981 brought Yankovic on tour for the first time as part of Dr. Demento's act. His stage act caught the eye of manager Jay Levey, who loved it and became Yankovic's manager. Levey insisted that the act would sound better if he had a full band, so he held auditions. Steve Jay became Yankovic's bass player, and Jim West played guitar. With Schwartz on drums, the band was complete. Yankovic's first show with this band was not successful at all. Yankovic and his band were the opening act for Missing Persons. The unimpressed audience threw items at the group, and they were booed off the stage.

In 1991, Rubén Valtierra joined the band on keyboards, allowing Yankovic to concentrate more on singing during concerts. Rick Derringer produced all of Yankovic's albums until the 1992 release Off the Deep End. After Derringer's departure, Yankovic began to produce his own albums.

In 1985, Yankovic co-wrote and starred in a mockumentary of his own life entitled The Compleat Al that intertwined fact and fiction of his life up to that point. The movie was co-directed by Jay Levey, who would direct UHF (see below) four years later.

In January 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery and shaved off his mustache, radically changing his trademark look. Yankovic commented that "Millions of girls actually found me hot for the first time!" Although his "official" look does not feature facial hair, he is often seen with a goatee; most notably, on the album art for the 2006 release, Straight Outta Lynwood.

Yankovic is of no relation to the famous accordionist Frankie Yankovic, but Weird Al did play accordion and sing backing vocals for one of Frankie's final records. Frankie Yankovic also made a cameo appearance in a special by "Weird Al" for the 1986 Grammys. Weird Al jokes that his parents made him take up accordion because, "apparently, my parents felt the world needed two accordion-playing Yankovics." When the elder accordionist died in 1998, a woman Weird Al knew on the east coast called him and errantly told him, "I'm sorry your dad died," which startled him at the time.

Yankovic married Suzanne Krajewski on February 10, 2001. Their daughter, Nina, was born February 11, 2003. They also have a pet poodle, Bela (pictured atop Yankovic's head on the cover of his album, Poodle Hat), and a pet cockatiel named Bo Veaner.

On April 9, 2004, Yankovic's parents, Nick, 86, and Mary, 81, were found dead in their Fallbrook, California home, apparently the victims of carbon monoxide poisoning from their fireplace that had been recently lit (the flue was closed, which trapped the deadly carbon monoxide gas inside the house, suffocating them). An hour after his wife notified him of his parents' death, Yankovic went on with his concert in Mankato, Minnesota, saying that "since my music had helped many of my fans through tough times, maybe it would work for me as well" and that it would "at least ... give me a break from sobbing all the time."^[3]

A biographical booklet was released with the 1994 box set compilation Permanent Record: Al In The Box.^[4]

Yankovic's songs

Main article: List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Yankovic is best known for his song parodies ("Eat It"), though he has actually recorded a greater number of original humorous songs ("You Don't Love Me Anymore" and "One More Minute"). His work depends largely on the satirizing of popular culture, including television (see The TV Album), movies ("The Saga Begins"), food (see The Food Album), popular music (the polkas), and sometimes issues in contemporary news ("Headline News"). Although many of his songs are parodies of contemporary radio hits, it is rare that the song's primary topic of lampooning is that artist. Yankovic's humour lies more in creating unexpected incongruity between an artist's image and the topic of the song, contrasting the style of the song with its content, or in pointing out trends or works which have become pop culture clichés.

In addition to his parodies, Yankovic also includes a medley of various songs on most albums, each one reinterpreted as a polka, with the choruses or memorable lines of various songs juxtaposed for humorous effect. Yankovic has been known to say that converting these songs to polka was "...the way God intended".

Some of his original songs are pastiches or "style parodies", where he chooses a band's entire body of work to honour/parody rather than any single hit by that band (for example, Devo with "Dare to Be Stupid"). Sometimes, it is obvious as to which band's style Yankovic is parodying, but often it is subjective. One person may hear influences from one band, while another may hear influences from a different band. Some style parodies are in the style of a genre of music, rather than a specific band.

The Dr. Demento Society, which issues yearly Christmas re-releases of material from Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes, often includes among these unreleased tracks from Yankovic's vaults, such as "Pacman", "It's Still Billy Joel To Me", or the live version of "School Cafeteria".

Yankovic has put two backmasking messages into his songs: the first, in "Nature Trail to Hell", said "Satan Eats Cheez Whiz"; the second, in "I Remember Larry", said "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands."^[5]

His latest three album releases feature the longest songs Yankovic has ever released. The "Albuquerque" track from Running with Scissors is 11 minutes and 23 seconds; "Genius in France" from Poodle Hat runs for 8 minutes and 56 seconds; "Trapped in the Drive Thru" from Straight Outta Lynwood is 10 minutes and 53 seconds long. These are often referred to as "epics" by his fans.

Yankovic has contributed original songs to several films ("This Is the Life", from Johnny Dangerously; "Polkamon" from the movie Pokémon: The Movie 2000, and a parody of the James Bond title sequence in Spy Hard), in addition to his own film, UHF. Other songs of his have appeared in films or television series as well, such as "Dare to Be Stupid" in Transformers: The Movie.

Reactions from original artists

Under copyright law's "fair use" doctrine – affirmed by the United States Supreme Court — one does not need permission to record a parody.^[6] However, Yankovic has always requested permission from the original artist before recording his parodies, as a means of maintaining good relationships within the music community. While artists are generally pleased with Yankovic's parodies, there have been a few notable exceptions.

Positive

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana said that the band felt they had "made it" after Yankovic recorded "Smells Like Nirvana" (parodying "Smells Like Teen Spirit").^[7] Kurt Cobain called Yankovic an American "rock genius" in his private journals. On his Behind the Music special, Yankovic stated that when he called Kurt to ask if he could parody the song Cobain asked, "Will it be about food?" Yankovic responded with "No, it'll be about how no one can understand your lyrics." Cobain is then said to have responded with, "O.K. then."

Michael Jackson is also a big fan of Yankovic. Jackson has twice allowed him to parody his songs. When he granted Yankovic permission to do a parody of "Bad" ("Fat"), Jackson allowed him to use the same set built for his own "Bad" video from the Moonwalker video.^[8] Though Jackson was a good sport about "Eat It" and "Fat", he requested that Yankovic not record a parody of "Black or White", because he felt the message was too important. However, Yankovic has performed a concert-only parody "Snack All Night" in his live shows. "Weird Al" also has a cameo appearance, along with many other celebrities, on Jackson's music video for Liberian Girl.

The song "The Saga Begins" (a parody of Don McLean's "American Pie") accurately states the entire plot of The Phantom Menace, despite being written before the film's release. Yankovic got the plot details from rumour websites. He was slightly unsure about Anakin proposing to Amidala, so he attended a $500 screening to confirm. McLean was pleased with the parody (though the rumors that he performs in the video were false); additionally, George Lucas loved the song and a LucasFilm representative told Yankovic "You should have seen the smile on his face."^[9]

Chamillionaire also put Weird Al's parody "White & Nerdy" on his offical Myspace page saying "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy [...] I didn't know he could rap like that". He also said "It's really an honor when he does that. [...] Weird Al is not gonna do a parody of your song if you're not doing it big." ^[10]

Negative

One of Yankovic's most controversial parodies was 1996's "Amish Paradise", based on "Gangsta's Paradise" by hip-hop artist Coolio. Reportedly, Coolio's label gave Yankovic the impression that Coolio had granted permission to record the parody, but Coolio maintains that he never did. Complicating the issue further, "Gangsta's Paradise" already samples heavily from a Stevie Wonder song, "Pastime Paradise". While Coolio claimed he was upset, legal action never materialised, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song. After this controversy, Yankovic has always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied. At the XM Satellite Radio booth at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show Yankovic and Coolio made peace. On his website, Yankovic wrote of this event, "I don’t remember what we said to each other exactly, but it was all very friendly… I doubt I’ll be invited to Coolio’s next birthday party, but at least I can stop wearing that bulletproof vest to the mall."^[11]

In 2003, Yankovic was denied permission to make a video for his parody of Eminem's "Lose Yourself":

"Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career...".^[12]

Refused parodies

On numerous occasions, Prince has refused Yankovic permission to record parodies of his songs. However, Yankovic has stated in interviews that he has "approached him every few years [to] see if he's lightened up".^[13]

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is a self-proclaimed Yankovic fan, but when Yankovic wished to create a polka medley of Led Zeppelin songs, Page refused. Yankovic, however, was allowed to re-record a sample of "Black Dog" for a segment of "Trapped in the Drive Thru".

Paul McCartney, also a Yankovic fan, refused Yankovic permission to record a parody of Wings' "Live and Let Die", entitled "Chicken Pot Pie", because McCartney is a vegetarian. It has been performed numerous times in concert, however. This is not unusual for Yankovic, as his concerts often feature parodies for which the artist did not give permission or could not otherwise be released. However, all these "concert only" songs remain unreleased by Yankovic.

In 2006, Yankovic gained James Blunt's permission to record a parody of "You're Beautiful". However, after Yankovic had recorded "You're Pitiful", Blunt's label, Atlantic Records, recanted this permission. The parody was pulled from Yankovic's Straight Outta Lynwood due to his label's unwillingness to "go to war" with Atlantic. Yankovic released the song as a free download on his MySpace profile, as well as his official website, since it was not Blunt himself objecting to the parody.^[14] In the "White & Nerdy" video, Yankovic's character is seen vandalising the record label's Wikipedia entry with the exclamation "YOU SUCK!" After the video was released online, Wikipedia's Atlantic Records article mirrored the video with numerous "vandals" editing it. Yankovic has said that he does not approve of the vandalism, though he admits being amused by it.^[15]

Misattribution and imitators

Because Yankovic is arguably the most successful parody artist, songs posted to file sharing networks are often misattributed to Yankovic due to their humorous subject matter. Much to the disdain of Yankovic (known for his clean lyrics), this includes songs that are racist, sexually explicit, or otherwise offensive. A young listener who had heard several of these offensive tracks by way of a file sharing service confronted Yankovic online, threatening a boycott due to his supposedly explicit lyrics.^[16] Quite a few of the songs, such as "Star Wars Cantina," "Star Wars Gangsta Rap," "Yoda Smokes Weed," "Chewbacca, What a Wookie", and several more, have a Star Wars motif.^[17] There are also others such as "Windows 95 Sucks", and "I Ran Over the Taco Bell Dog". In addition, some of these parodies are only a minute long. The large number of Star Wars related songs attributed to him is somewhat surprising, as to date Yankovic has only sung two Star Wars related songs: a parody of The Kinks hit "Lola", called "Yoda", and of Don McLean's "American Pie" about The Phantom Menace called "The Saga Begins".

Yankovic cites these misattributions as "his real beef with P2P sites":

“If you do a search for my name on any one of those sites, I guarantee you that about half of the songs that come up will be songs I had absolutely nothing to do with. That particularly bothers me, because I really try to do quality work, and I also try to maintain a more-or-less family-friendly image – and some of these songs that are supposedly by me are just … well, vulgar and awful. I truly think my reputation has suffered in a lot of people's minds because of all those fake Weird Al songs floating around the Internet.^[18]”

A list of songs not by Yankovic can be found at The Not Al List. Alternatively, a list of all commercially released songs recorded by Yankovic can be found on his website's Recording Dates Page.

Weird Al Star Fund

The Weird Al Star Fund is a campaign started by Yankovic's fans to get him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Their mission is to "solicit, collect, and raise the necessary money, and to compile the information needed for the application to nominate 'Weird Al' Yankovic for a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame." Fans worldwide have sent donations to raise the $15,000 needed for a nomination. In addition to the preferred method of cash donations, many methods were used to raise money for the cause, such as a live benefit show held April 11, 2006, and selling merchandise on the official website and eBay, including t-shirts, calendars, and cookbooks. On May 26, 2006, the campaign hit the $15,000 target -- just 5 days before the May 31, 2006 deadline to submit the necessary paperwork. However, on the list of inductees for 2007, Yankovic was not included.^[19] His application will automatically be reconsidered in 2007 for the possibility of receiving his star in 2008.

Awards and album certification

• "Eat It" — Grammy Best Comedy Recording (1984)
• "Fat" — Grammy Best Concept Video (1988)
• Poodle Hat — Grammy for Best Comedy Album (2003)
• Six other Grammy nominations
• The "Eat It" single reached the #1 position on the Australian singles chart in 1984.

Source: Weirdal.com

Discography

Since Yankovic secured a recording contract in 1982, he has released many albums and parodies. The following is a comprehensive list of his albums to date, with US release date, and highest Billboard Chart position:

Singles

Compilation albums (international)

Special projects

• Peter And The Wolf / Carnival of the Animals, Part II (With Wendy Carlos) - October 4, 1988
  • "This warped classical children's record featuring narration and poems written by 'Weird Al' Yankovic and music arranged, composed and performed by synthesizer whiz Wendy Carlos".^[20] Yankovic's text modifies the original story considerably: "The Grandfather will be played by... Don Ameche! What? He couldn't make it?", while the music features various innovations by Wendy Carlos over the original by Sergei Prokofiev. Side two of the album is "Carnival of the Animals, Part II" which is in part a homage to The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns, with Yankovic taking the role of Ogden Nash in writing humorous poems about various animals that were "forgotten" in the original Carnival. Parts of this recording are reminiscent of the signature style of Peter Schickele's public radio program Schickele Mix.
• Crispin Hellion Glover, The Big Problem ≠ The Solution. The Solution = Let It Be (1989)
  • Yankovic is listed as an accordionist in the album's extensive production credits.
• Babalu Music! - October 22, 1991
  • A collection of music from and related to the television sitcom I Love Lucy. Yankovic's contribution as producer seems not to extend past the title track.
• Frankie Yankovic, Songs of the Polka King, Vol. 1 - September 24, 1996
  • Accordion and backing vocals for "Who Stole the Kishka"
• Pokémon The Movie 2000 (soundtrack) - July 18, 2000
  • Includes Yankovic's "Polkamon"
• Ben Folds, Songs for Silverman - April 26, 2005
  • Yankovic performs background vocals for the song "Time"
• Sandra Boynton, Dog Train - 2005
  • Yankovic sings a duet with Kate Winslet on "I Need A Nap".

Compilation albums (imports, other)

• Eat It - May 1, 1984 (Japanese LP)
• The Official Music of "Weird Al" Yankovic - June 1984 (Japanese LP)
• The Best Of Yankovic - 1992 (Korean LP)
• The Saga Begins - January 25, 2000 (Japanese CD)

Videography

The following is a comprehensive list of his long form videos to date, with the United States release date.

• The Compleat Al - August 1985
• UHF - July 21, 1989
• The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library - May 1992
• Alapalooza: The Videos - December 1993
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Collection - 1993
• Bad Hair Day: The Videos - June 1996
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Videos - January 1998
• "Weird Al" Yankovic Live! - November 23, 1999
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection - November 3, 2003
• The Weird Al Show - The Complete Series - August 15, 2006

Cameos and special appearances

• Tapeheads - 1988
• The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad! - 1988
• The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear - 1991
• The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult - 1994
• Spy Hard - 1996
• Safety Patrol - 1997
• Nothing Sacred - 1998
• Desperation Boulevard - 2002
• Haunted Lighthouse 4-D - 2003

UHF

Main article: UHF (film)

In 1989, Yankovic starred in a full length feature film, co-written by himself and manager Jay Levey, and filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma called UHF. A satire of the television and film industries, also starring Michael Richards, Fran Drescher and Victoria Jackson, it scored floundering studio Orion their highest test-scores since the movie RoboCop, however, it was unsuccessful in theaters (likely due to a release in the summer of 1989, going up against Ghostbusters II, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, and more). It has since become a cult classic, with out-of-print copies of the VHS fetching up to $100 on eBay until the release of the DVD in 2002. Yankovic occasionally shows clips from the film at his concerts (to which MGM, the film's current owner, initially objected). To apparently make it more accessible, the Australian release of the film was titled The Vidiot From UHF, a title Yankovic openly loathes.

Directing career

"Weird Al" Yankovic has directed many of his own music videos; Yankovic has directed all of his music videos from 1994’s “Bedrock Anthem” to his latest, 2006’s “White and Nerdy”.

He also directed the end sequence of 1986’s “Christmas at Ground Zero” (an original piece juxtaposing Christmas with nuclear warfare) from his “Polka Party” LP.

Additionally, he has directed several videos for artists such as Hanson, The Black Crowes, Ben Folds, Jeff Foxworthy and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. He has cameo appearances in his videos for Hanson and Ben Folds. Yankovic also directed the title sequence to Spy Hard, in which he sang the title song.

Notable television appearances

Yankovic had a TV series called The Weird Al Show, which aired from September 1997 to September 1998 on CBS. Though the show appeared to be geared at children, the humor was really more for his adult fans. The entire series was released on DVD by Shout! Factory on August 15, 2006.

Yankovic has hosted Al TV on MTV and Al Music on MuchMusic many times, generally coinciding with the release of each new album. For Poodle Hat, AL-TV appeared on VH1 for the first time. A recurring segment of AL-TV involves Yankovic manipulating interviews for comic effect. He inserts himself into a previously conducted interview with a musician, then manipulates his questions, resulting in bizarre and comic responses from the celebrity.

VH1 produced a Behind the Music episode on Yankovic, however, he was so clean-cut that the producers could not find any of the typical angst-laced problems that make many rock stars' stories compelling (as Yankovic noted in the episode), so they stretched many smaller disappointments and skirmishes during his career into major downfalls to fit the program's classic formula. His two commercial failures, his film UHF and his 1986 album Polka Party! were presented as having a larger impact on the direction of his career and Coolio's later disapproval of "Amish Paradise" was played up as a large feud. Much was also made over his apparent lack of a love life. Despite the dramatic angles given to these events, the special was accurate in discussing Yankovic's life and career and received heavy playtime well after its initial airing.

Yankovic was also featured in a 2003 episode of The Simpsons, singing "Homer & Marge" (a parody of John Mellencamp's "Jack & Diane") with his band. The episode, "Three Gays of the Condo", in which Marge hires "Weird Al" to sing the aforementioned song to Homer in an attempt to reconcile their marriage, later won an Emmy for "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)".

Yankovic appeared in Adult Swim's Robot Chicken episode "The Munnery" two days before his album Straight Outta Lynwood was released, where the music video for his song "Weasel Stomping Day" -- made in stop-motion by the Robot Chicken crew -- debuted. Along with the "Weasel Stomping Day" short, Weird Al also appeared in another short during the episode.

An exhaustive list of television shows on which Yankovic has appeared is available here.

Trivia

• Yankovic's signature food is a Twinkie-wiener sandwich which consists of an overturned Twinkie split open as a bun, hot dog, and Easy Cheese. He has stated that he has switched to using tofu hot dogs since becoming a vegetarian, but still enjoys them as his favorite snack. The twinkie-wiener sandwich can be seen in UHF.
• As a recurring joke, Yankovic often includes the number 27 somewhere in his work.
• Yankovic says that his favorite car is the Nash Metropolitan, and he tends to feature a brown and white Metropolitan in his films and music videos.
• In 2005 Yankovic appeared live as a surprise guest at a Presidents of the United States of America concert to perform "Gump" with them during the encore. The song is a parody of their song "Lump".
• Yankovic designed a greeting card for Angelwear, a website through which celebrities create their own artwork for notepads, cards, and clothing. The proceeds are then donated to a charity of the celebrity's choice.^[21] Yankovic's chosen charity is The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which he has supported for a number of years.
• In an episode of Futurama, Yankovic is shown in the year 3000 to have been cryogenically frozen. In the chamber he is wearing a shirt that says "Eat It" and with a guitar in his hands.
• In an episode of King of the Hill entitled "The Son That Got Away," Bobby Hill says "I just sang a song parody, Dad. Like Weird Al Yankovic [sic]" Hank Hill responds, "Son, Al Yankovich blew his brains out in the late '80s after people stopped buying his records. He's not worth getting into trouble over." Later in the episode Bobby Hill says, "I see things clearly now. I'm going to grow up without anyone to love, and die friendless and alone like Weird Al Yankovic."

See also

• List of singles by "Weird Al" Yankovic
• List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Other well known artists who have parodied popular music:

Billy Connolly

Homer & Jethro

Stan Freberg

Maclean and Maclean

Cledus T. Judd

Frank Zappa

Notes and references

External links

• Official site
• Video and free download of Don't Download This Song
• "Weird Al" Yankovic at MySpace

• "Weird Al" Yankovic at the Internet Movie Database
• "Weird Al" Yankovic at MusicBrainz
• Weird Al Wiki, a fan-created MediaWiki-powered wiki knowledge base dedicated to everything Weird Al
• Weird Al White Nerdy video clips
• I Must Take Issue With The Wikipedia Entry For 'Weird Al' Yankovic The Onion's biting commentary on this article (10 Nov. 2004)
• The Not Al Page attempts to list tracks which are often wrongly attributed to Yankovic and discover their true origins.
• Al-oholics Anonymous The largest fan-based site for Yankovic, including photos, sounds, and video clips.
• Yankovic! The first parody web page devoted to the parody king. Also home to Yank Blog
• Weird Al Star Fund Help get "Weird Al" Yankovic his star on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame
• Make the Rock Hall "Weird" The grassroots campaign for Yankovic to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame