The man, the myth, the legend.
“He who is tired of Weird Al is tired of life.” – Homer Simpson
There have been many music artists who have come and gone from the spotlight in my 40+ years on earth… but is there any one who is more universally liked, beloved and admired than one Alfred Yankovich, who we know better as Weird Al? For four decades, Weird Al has made us laugh at his unique satire on life through cleverly written parodies based on popular songs. From the coarsely sung, accordion accompanied songs he submitted to the Dr. Demento Show in the early 80’s to the more much more polished but equally brilliant gems he’s released in recent years… nobody has used music and humor to send up the modern world better than Weird Al has done in his long career.
Who’s fat?
While Weird Al is best known for his pop song parodies, serious fans are well aware of the fact that he also wrote a whole lot of original music as well… often style parodies of certain artists or genres. One of his best known, “Dare To Be Stupid,” is a pastiche of the new wave group Devo… and even got Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh to admit that Weird Al had out-Devoed Devo. And there’s hardly been a style that Al hasn’t attempted before, from country to rap, doo wop to reggae, big band to grunge…
And of course….. polka!
It’s a crime that Weird Al Yankovic has not been put into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame given his status in the music industry. Most artists consider it an honor to have Weird Al parody one of their songs, and anyone who thinks parody is easy to write has never seriously tried to create one before…. from both a lyrical and musical perspective. And with that in mind, it’s time for me to introduce my newest Top 30 countdown which will temporarily uproot the Dusty Vinyl Archive on Mondays….
My sixth Top 30 countdown will be a one-man act, featuring my very favorite parodies to be recorded by Weird Al Yankovic over the past 40+ years! This countdown will only feature the direct song parodies Weird Al has done over the course of his 14 album releases from 1983 to 2014. Each album had four or five parodies on it, and you will find at least one selection from each album in this countdown. And the timing of this countdown was intentional, as my #1 selection will be revealed on October 23rd, which will be Weird Al’s (and someone else’s) 64th birthday!
I’ll kick things off with my 30th ranked Weird Al parody on Monday!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
oooh maybe the lady gaga song is in your charts too?
We shall see….
One of my all time favorite concerts was going to see Weird Al. Great musician, great guy.
A living legend for sure!
Would love to go to a Weird Al concert – and yes, he needs to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Eat It’ and “Amish Paradise” – come on!
The RRHoF takes itself too seriously to let him in. It’s their loss….
It will be so fun to hear all the Weird Al songs! 🙂
I counted 69 parodies he’s done, so over half of them will be left out…. including a few I was really hoping would make it! And there will be some surprises with what I think are some pretty underrated songs of his!
Super! My daughter and SIL have gone to a couple of his performances before, and said he really puts on a great show. 🙂
Universally liked, beloved and admired? Umm, that can’t be referring to Weird Al. Nope, don’t believe that for a minute.
Care to share? I can’t recall ever hearing anyone, regardless of their preference in music, ever say anything bad about him or his music… but I can be a bit sheltered.
Me for one!! He bugs the devil outa me. Always cringe when he takes a perfectly nice song and makes it so goofy.
Weird Al was weird indeed but how about EXTREMELY weird Tiny Tim…..now that was weird x 2 !
Pam
No argument there, but Tiny Tim was kind of a one note act…
Yikes, I might have to say lots of positive things about your song choices for the next half a year. Where’s my thesaurus…
Well, this is going to be awkward. Maybe I’ll pick some of your least favorites…
This is so awesome.