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#redirect [[Four valleys (disambiguation)]]
'''Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic''' (born [[October 23]], [[1959]]) is a [[Grammy]] award winning [[United_States|American]] [[musician]], [[satire|satirist]], [[parody|parodist]], [[accordion|accordionist]], and [[television producer]].
He is known in particular for humorous [[songs]] which satirize [[popular culture]] or parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts, or both. His works have earned him four [[gold record|gold]] and four [[platinum record]]s.
[[Image:Weirdalpoodlehat.jpeg|right|thumb|250px|Album cover from ''[[Poodle Hat]]'' (2003)]]
== Biography ==
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic, the son of Nick and Mary Yankovic, first started playing the [[accordion]] one day before his seventh birthday, mastering the instrument by age ten.
After hearing [[Dr. Demento]]'s [[radio]] show (a [[comedy]] radio program featuring humorous music), Al sent the Doctor a tape of a song entitled "Belvedere Cruising" in [[1976]]. Al was a [[Student|senior]] at [[Lynwood High School]] in [[Lynwood, California|Lynwood]], [[California]] at the time, but that tape was the start of his eventual career.
Three years later, Al was an [[architecture]] student at [[California Polytechnic State University|Cal Poly San Luis Obispo]] and a [[disc jockey]] at the university's radio station (KCPR). Since "My Sharona" by [[The Knack]] was on the charts and The Knack was going to play at Cal Poly, Al took his accordion into the bathroom across from the listening booth and recorded a parody entitled "My Bologna", with a B-side called "School Cafeteria". The Knack thought it was funny, and arranged for the song to be released on their label, [[Capitol Records]], which gave Al a six-month contract. Dr. Demento's listeners put this track atop his "Funny Five" list.
In [[1980]], Al was working 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 (band)|Queen]]'s hit, "[[Another One Bites The Dust]]". While practicing the song outside the sound booth, Al ran into [[Jon Schwartz (drummer)|Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz]] who told Al he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Al's accordion case to keep a good steady beat to the song. "Another One Rides The Bus" became so popular that it got Al his first television appearance, ''[[The Tomorrow Show]]'' with [[Tom Snyder]]. On the show, Al played his accordion and again Jon banged on his accordion case. The rare [[1981]] Placebo EP release of this song has as its B-side the track "Happy Birthday", a song about the world's problems and imminent destruction ("There's garbage in the water, there's poison in the sky, I guess it won't be long before we're all gonna die"), with the suggestion that these things should be ignored on one's birthday ("So if you think it's scary, if it's more than you can take, just blow out the candles, and have a piece of cake!").
[[1981]] brought Al on tour for the first time as part of Dr. Demento's act. His performances were particularly interesting as few, if any, people at the time were doing parodies of rock and roll songs on accordion. His stage act caught the eye of manager [[Jay Levey]], who loved it and became Al's manager. Jay insisted that the act would sound better if Al had a full [[band]], so he held auditions. [[Steve Jay]] became Al's [[bass guitar|bass]] player, and Jim West the lead [[guitar]]ist. With "Bermuda" Schwartz on [[drums]], the band was complete.
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 Mr. Yankovic's vaults, such as "Pacman", "It's Still Billy Joel To Me", or the demos for "I Love Rocky Road". The live version of "School Cafeteria" is also to be found on Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes.
In [[1985]], Al 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 (movie)|UHF]] (see below) four years later.
Al claims to have been inspired by [[Allan Sherman]], whose portrait in miniature (with name) can be found by the observant on the cover of Al's first album.
In January [[1998]], Yankovic had [[LASIK]] eye surgery and shaved off his [[mustache]], radically changing his trademark look.
Al married Suzanne Krajewski on [[February 10]], [[2001]]. Their daughter, Nina, was born [[February 11]], [[2003]].
On [[April 9]], [[2004]], Al's parents, Nick Louis Yankovic, 86, and Mary, 81, were found dead in their [[Fallbrook, California]] home, apparently the victims of [[carbon monoxide poisoning]]. The night after their bodies were found, Al went on with his concert in [[Mankato, Minnesota]], saying that since his music had helped many of his fans through tough times, maybe it would work for him as well.
== Al's songs ==
Though he is best known for his song parodies, Yankovic has recorded a greater number of original humorous songs, such as "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" and "Hardware Store". Yankovic's work depends largely on the satirizing of [[popular culture]], including television, movies, food, popular music, and sometimes issues in contemporary 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 humor 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 cliches. Some of his original songs are [[pastiche]]s or "style parodies," where he chooses a band's entire body of work to honor/parody rather than any single hit by that band; some bands so honored have been [[Devo]] ("Dare to Be Stupid"), [[The B-52's]] ("Mr. Popeil"), [[Talking Heads]] ("Dog Eat Dog"), [[Nine Inch Nails]] ("Germs"), [[The Beach Boys]] ("Trigger Happy"), [[Frank Zappa]] ("Genius in France"), [[Oingo Boingo]] ("You Make Me"), [[The Police]] ("Velvet Elvis"), [[Twisted Sister]] ("Young, Dumb And Ugly"), [[James Taylor]] ("The Good Old Days"), [[The Beastie Boys]] ("Twister"), [[They Might Be Giants]] ("Everything You Know is Wrong"), [[Bob Dylan]] ("Bob"), [[The Kinks]] ("Don't Wear Those Shoes"), and [[Harry Chapin]] ("The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota").
In addition to his parodies, Al also includes a medley of various songs on most albums, each one reinterpreted as a [[polka]], with the choruses of various songs juxtaposed for humourous effect. Examples include "Alternative Polka", "Bohemian Polka", "Angry White Boy Polka" and "Polka Power."
One of his most controversial parodies was [[Amish Paradise]], a spoof of the song [[Gangsta's Paradise (song)|Gangsta's Paradise]] by [[Coolio]]. Coolio's label gave Weird Al permission to parody his work, but Coolio himself never gave permission. Coolio was upset, but legal action never materialized. After this happened, Al always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied.
He has contributed songs to several [[film]]s, including the original song "This Is The Life", featured on the soundtrack for [[Johnny Dangerously]]; the title track to his own movie, ''[[UHF (movie)|UHF]]''; and a parody of the [[James Bond]] title sequences in ''[[Spy Hard]]'', the title track to a [[1996]] [[Leslie Nielsen]] movie directed by [[Rick Friedberg]]. He also contributed the song "Dare to Be Stupid" to ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'', and the song "Polkamon" to ''[[Pokémon The Movie 2000 - The Power of One]]''.
== Directing career ==
Weird Al has directed many of his own [[music video]]s, the first being 'Bedrock Anthem' in [[1993]]. He has directed all of his own videos since then. Additionally, he has directed several by such artists as [[Hanson (band)|Hanson]], [[The Black Crowes]], [[Ben Folds]], and [[The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion]]. He also directed the title sequence to [[Spy Hard]], in which he sang the title song.
== Recognition ==
Yankovic has received three [[Grammy Award]]s and became eligible for the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] in [[2004]], although he says, "I think my chances of ever making it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame are about as good as [[Milli Vanilli]]'s." Though now Al's fans have been aggressively campaigning for his induction into the Rock Hall and have also begun raising funds to get him considered for another key entertainment honor, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Yankovic has been called a "cultural barometer" by ''[[The Onion]]'''s recurring fictitious dweeb character [[Larry Groznic]] ([[10 November]] [[2004]]), who called Weird Al's music "the consummate pastiche of popular songwriting styles for our times." The article also referred to one real-life indication of Yankovic's status: [[Krist Novoselic]] of the band [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]] <!--, a [[1990s]] [[grunge music|grunge band]], --> said they felt they had "made it" after Yankovic recorded "Smells Like Nirvana" (parodying Nirvana's "[[Smells Like Teen Spirit]]").
The popularity of Al's music among users of Internet [[file sharing]] networks has led to many parody or comedy songs shared in this manner being identified as "Weird Al" tracks which in fact have no connection to him. One major victim of this seems to be [[Bob Rivers]], but so many wrongly attributed tracks exist that several fans have set up websites attempting to list such tracks along with their real artists. It has been argued that this not only deprives the real artists involved of credit for their creations, but sometimes associates Al's name with types of music he would never produce and would not want to be known for. A list of songs not performed by Weird Al can be found at [http://free.house.cx/~eil/etc/notal.html The Not Al Page].
== Works ==
=== Other projects ===
* ''[[UHF (movie)|UHF]]'' - 1989: A commercially unsuccessful movie satirizing the television industry, starring Yankovic, [[Michael Richards]], [[Fran Drescher]] and [[Victoria Jackson]]. It has since become a cult favorite, and was an extremely popular DVD. Al previously showed clips at his concerts to the great appreciation of his fans, but this was halted by a cease and desist order from MGM.
* ''Babalu Music'' - 1991: A collection of I Love Lucy music. Al's contribution as producer doesn't seem to extend past the title track.
* ''Peter and the Wolf'' - 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]]" - [http://weirdal.com/ WeirdAl.com]. Weird Al's text modifies the original story considerably: "The Grandfather will be played by... [[Don Ameche]]! What? He can'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 a sort of homage to [[The Carnival of the Animals]] by [[Camille Saint-Saëns]], with Weird Al taking the role of [[Edward Lear]] in writing humorous poems about the slug, the shark, etc.
=== Television appearances ===
Weird Al had a short-lived 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 adult fans of Al.
Al has hosted [[AL-TV]] on [[MTV]] many years, generally coinciding with the release of each new album. For Poodle Hat, however, AL-TV appeared on [[VH1]]. The most popular part of AL-TV is Al manipulating interviews especially commissioned for AL-TV by the network for comic effect.
VH1 produced a [[Behind the Music]] episode on Al. Al is so clean-cut that the producers couldn't find any of the typical angst-laced problems that make many rock stars' stories compelling (as Al noted in an interview with BTM), so their angle was on Al's life as a bachelor and (what they presumed was) his loneliness. (Also, the commercial failures of ''[[UHF (movie)|UHF]]'' and ''Polka Party''). However, since the taping, Al has married. He and his wife, Suzanne, recently had a daughter, Nina.
Al has also made a number of [[cameo appearance|cameo]] film appearances, including all three ''[[The Naked Gun|Naked Gun]]'' films.
He currently plays a role in the "[[Haunted Lighthouse 4-D]]" Show at the [[Busch Gardens|Busch Gardens Williamsburg]] theme park. He has also appeared in cartoons such as ''[[EEK! The Cat]]'', ''[[The Simpsons]]'', ''[[The Brak Show]]'', ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' and ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'', lending his voice to that of the Squid Hat, a [[parody]] of the [[Sorting Hat]] in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series.
Al also appeared as an alien in an episode of [[Amazing Stories (television)|Amazing Stories]].
== Trivia ==
* Al has put two [[Backward message|backwards messages]] into his songs, presumably parodies of the hysteria over backwards messages in pop music that reached their peak in the 1980s: 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." [http://www.al-oholicsanonymous.com/faq/#secret]
* Al often hides the number 27 somewhere in his songs, album art, and memorabilia. Examples are Al wearing a 27 on the cover of the Running With Scissors album and including 27 photos in the photo gallery on the "Weird Al Yankovic Live!" DVD.
* On [[November 10]], [[2004]], ''[[The Onion]]'' published an editorial titled "I Must Take Issue With The Wikipedia Entry For Weird Al Yankovic."
* While artists are generally pleased with Weird Al, there are three notable exceptions. [[Coolio]] was very displeased since his management told Weird Al to go ahead with the parody without consulting him. Al apologized for the misunderstanding. Also, [[Prince (artist)|Prince]] has refused to allow parodies, though Weird Al has stated that he continues to "check back with him to see if he has developed a sense of humor" in interviews. Al was also requested to change the video for his remake of [[Eminem]]'s "Lose Yourself." Says Al: "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 ..."
*Weird Al has backed down from artists like [[Prince (artist)|Prince]] and [[Alanis Morissette]] only out of courtesy and convenience. Because [[parody]] is recognized as [[fair use]] by [[copyright]] laws, Weird Al is actually free to make fun of any artist's work without permission. He only asks for permission to maintain good relationships and avoid nuisance law suits.
*[[Led Zeppelin]] guitarist [[Jimmy Page]] is actually a self proclaimed Weird Al fan, but when Al tried to create a Led Zeppelin polka he refused.
* Licensing issues for Weird Al's works are some of the most complicated in the music industry. Because of his polka-medleys, Weird Al can wind up performing works by dozens of artists on a single album. Because of the potentially crippling amount of royalties required for this, Weird Al's record labels have had to engage in endless negotiation and diplomacy.
*Recently though, the accordion playing parody artist has inspired new parody artists including [[Matthew Hodgson]] "That One Guy", Jake Waters, [[Bob Ricci]], [[The Great Luke Ski]] and "Weirdo Jace" McLain. These artists are often dubbed "Weird Al Wannabes".
*Al is no relation to famous accordionist [[Frankie Yankovic]], but Al did play accordion for "Who Stole the Kishka" on one of Frankie's final records, ''Songs of the Polka King, Vol. 1''.
*Al's song "[[The Saga Begins]]" (a parody of [[Don McLean]]'s "[[American Pie (song)|American Pie]]") is notable because it accurately states the entire plot of ''[[Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace|The Phantom Menace]]'', despite being released before the film. Al got everything he needed from rumor websites.
== Discography ==
Since Al got a record contract in [[1983]], he has released many albums and parodies. The following is a comprehensive list of his albums to date:
* ''[["Weird Al" Yankovic (album)|"Weird Al" Yankovic]]'' - [[1983]]; #139 US
* ''[["Weird Al" Yankovic In 3-D]]'' - [[1984]]; US #17
* ''[[Dare To Be Stupid (album)|Dare To Be Stupid]]'' - [[1985]]; #50 US
* ''[[Polka Party! (album)|Polka Party!]]'' - [[1986]]
* ''[[Even Worse]]'' - [[1988]]; #27 US
* ''[[UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack And Other Stuff]]'' - [[1989]]; #146 US
* ''[[Off The Deep End]]'' - [[1992]]; #17 US
* ''[[Alapalooza]]'' - [[1993]]; #46 US
* ''[[Bad Hair Day]]'' - [[1996]]; #14 US
* ''[[Running With Scissors (album)|Running With Scissors]]'' - [[1999]]; #16 US
* ''[[Poodle Hat]]'' - [[2003]]; #17 US
* A 12th album is currently in production as of [[July 2005]].
=== Compilation albums (international) ===
* ''[[Greatest Hits (Weird Al)|Greatest Hits]]'' - [[1988]]
* ''[[The Food Album]]'' - [[1993]]
* ''[[Permanent Record - Al in the Box|Permanent Record - Al In The Box]]'' - [[1994]]
* ''[[Greatest Hits - Volume II]]'' - [[1994]]
* ''[[The TV Album]]'' - [[1995]]
=== Compilation albums (imports, other) ===
* ''[[Eat It (album)|Eat It]]'' - [[1984]] (Japanese LP)
* ''[[The Official Music Of "Weird Al" Yankovic]]'' - [[1984]] (Japanese LP)
* ''[[The Best Of Yankovic]]'' - [[1992]] (Korean LP)
* ''[[Polka Fiction]]'' - [[1996]] (bootleg)
* ''[[The Movie Album]]'' - [[1997]] (bootleg)
* ''[[Love Gone Wrong: The Love Album]]'' - [[1997]] (bootleg)
* ''[[The "Weird Al" Yankovic Anth-AL-ogy]]'' - [[1999]] (hoax)
* ''[[The Saga Begins]]'' - [[1999]] (Japanese LP)
== See also ==
* [[List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic]]
== External links ==
* [http://www.weirdal.com/ Official site]
* Weird Al fans have a discussion board at the [http://www.weirdalforum.com/forum World of Weird Al Yankovic forums].
* [http://www.com-www.com/weirdal/index2.html XVR27's 'Weird Al' Yankovic homepage!] is an site filled with Weird Al lyrics and other information
* [http://www.alsongs.com Alsongs] is an extensive collection of Weird Al lyrics.
* [http://free.house.cx/~eil/etc/notal.html The Not Al Page] attempts to list tracks which are often wrongly attributed to Weird Al and discover their true origins.
* [http://yankovic.org/ Yankovic!] Parody page, Parody artist
* [http://www.Al-oholicsAnonymous.com/ Al-oholics Anonymous] The largest fan-based site for Weird Al, including photos, sounds, and video clips.
* [http://weirdal.0catch.com/ We've Got It All On UHF]
* [http://www.weirdalstar.com/ Weird Al Star Fund] Help get Al his star on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame
* [http://www.chuckthewriter.com/Yankovic.pdf Weird Al: Polkas, Parodies and the Power of Satire], a PDF article about Al and the band from Goldmine magazine, written by columnist Chuck Miller [14 page PDF]
* [http://www.dohtem.com/al/ Make the Rock Hall "Weird"] The grassroots campaign to get Al inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
*[http://s13.invisionfree.com/Al_PC/index.php?act=idx/ Al-PC]- A brand new forum for Al.
* [http://www.lyricsdir.com/weird-al-yankovic-lyrics.html Weird Al Yankovic Lyrics]
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