I don't want to be embroiled in any nastiness. In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, Yankovic said, "I can't tell you when any material is coming out. [183], In the official video for Weezer's cover of "Africa" published in September 2018, which itself is parody of Weezer's video for "Undone – The Sweater Song", Yankovic stands in for Rivers Cuomo as vocalist and lead guitar. Alfred "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist, who is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. He was raised in Lynwood, California. [30] When Running with Scissors debuted in 1999, he unveiled a radically changed look. "[67][68] Their deaths occurred following the release of Poodle Hat, which was Yankovic's lowest-selling album in 20 years. On January 24, 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery to correct his extreme myopia. To help promote his 2014 album Mandatory Fun in social media circles, Yankovic produced eight music videos for the album releasing them over eight consecutive days with release of the album, believing it "would make an impact because people would be talking about the album all week long". “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC; Catalog; Shop; Archives; Strings Attached - THE 2019 TOUR Between June 5 and Sept. 1, 2019, we played 67 shows in 64 venues all across North America as part of the Strings Attached tour. In his early career, Yankovic hosted the specials Al TV on MTV and Al Music on MuchMusic many times, generally coinciding with the release of each new album. [14] Peaking at No. The same year, he appeared as himself in the How I Met Your Mother episode "Noretta". It also includes Medium Rarities, a bonus 15th album full of previously unreleased material and other non-album tracks. For example, "First World Problems" from Mandatory Fun is a style take on the Pixies, with the opening stanza reminiscent of the Pixies' "Debaser". 'Weird Al' Yankovic – Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction? Big's Dinner and a Scam, "Weird Al Yankovic leads parade of geek music at Calgary's Comic Expo", "Weird Al's Imitation: A Funky Form of Flattery", "Weird Al Yankovic's latest send-ups on The Catch-up", "Autopsy confirms Yankovic parents died from carbon monoxide poisoning", "The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic", "Midnight Star "Ask Al" Q&As for April 1994", "Dr. Demento Marks 30 Years Of Funny Music", "Was 'Weird Al' the real star all along? Zo bezingt hij in zijn lied The Saga Begins (op de melodie van American Pie) de volledige plot van Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. "Weird Al" Yankovic, Wendy Carlos "Weird Al" Yankovic, Wendy Carlos - Peter & The Wolf / Carnival Of The Animals - Part II (Album) 3 versions : CBS, FM (3) FM 44567: US: 1988: Sell This Version: 3 versions It was designed to be part of CBS's mandated Educational or Informative programming to teach children morals. [14] Lin-Manuel Miranda directly credits Yankovic as an influence on his musical Hamilton. On October 7, 2008, Yankovic released to the iTunes Store "Whatever You Like", a parody of the T.I. "[154], In 2016, Al appeared in 2 episodes of BoJack Horseman as Mr. Peanutbutter's brother, Captain Peanutbutter, and began portraying Milo Murphy in the Disney XD series Milo Murphy's Law. Yankovic was considering a complete polka medley with only U2 songs, but was denied the rights by the band. [79] Yankovic did not include a medley on his first album, but considered this for his second, In 3-D, recognizing that it would only work if he used well-known songs. "[76] Apart from Yankovic and his band performing his classic and contemporary hits, staples of Yankovic's live performances include a medley of parodies, many costume changes between songs, and a video screen on which various clips are played during the costume changes. In 2015, Yankovic made an appearance on an episode of The Odd Couple as a yoga student in the class Felix takes over for one day. While Coolio claimed he was upset, legal action never materialized, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song. 1 debut album on the Billboard charts the week of its release, buoyed by Yankovic's approach for releasing eight music videos over eight continuous days that drew viral attention to the album as described below. Discover releases, reviews, credits, songs, and more about "Weird Al" Yankovic - In 3-D at Discogs. [71] Yankovic's career in novelty and comedy music has outlasted many of his "mainstream" parody targets, such as Toni Basil, MC Hammer, and Men Without Hats. That's not how I live my life. "Ricky" broke the top 100 videos on MTV at the time, which Yankovic took as a sign that his career was in music, quitting his job as a mailroom clerk at the local offices of Westwood One to pursue the music career. [8] He has also written two children's books, When I Grow Up (2011) and My New Teacher and Me! 2876 Followers. [95] However, as a personal rule and as a means of maintaining good relationships, Yankovic has always sought permission from the original artist before commercially releasing a parody. Yankovic is het enige kind van Louis Yankovic en Mary Elizabeth. Produced by “Weird Al” Yankovic. - Homer Simpson So far, we've got 901 pages about Weird Al, his songs, his albums, and everything in between. "[104], The Presidents of the United States of America were so pleased with "Gump", Yankovic's parody of their song "Lump", that they ended the song with his last line instead of their own ("And that's all I have to say about that") on the live recording of "Lump" featured on the compilation album Pure Frosting. "[106], Chamillionaire was also very pleased, even putting Yankovic's parody "White & Nerdy" (a parody of "Ridin'") on his official MySpace page before it was on Yankovic's own page. [43] The album artwork and title, Mandatory Fun, were affirmed by his publisher. Weird Al Yankovic lyrics - 255 song lyrics sorted by album, including "Hardware Store", "Albuquerque", "Your Horoscope For Today". [91] This release strategy was considered by The Atlantic as a "web-enabled precision video delivery operation, and evidence of some serious digital distributional forethought" as it allows the videos to be seen by different sets of audiences for each site. A fictional biographical film that parodies other films based on musicians. The concerts finished with a large flashy production around Star Wars, including his songs The Saga Begins and Yoda. [82], One of Yankovic's most controversial parodies was 1996's "Amish Paradise", based on "Gangsta's Paradise" by hip-hop artist Coolio, which, in turn, was based on "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder. In his reasoning, "There's enough people that do unfunny music. [22], Yankovic released his second album "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D in 1984. Modern stand-up. Yankovic performed George Harrison's "What Is Life" at the live-recorded George Fest (Los Angeles, 2014). "[22] The communications are typically handled by his manager Jay Levey, but at times Yankovic has asked the artist directly, such as flying to Denver, Colorado, to attend an Iggy Azalea concert and speak to her personally about parodying her song "Fancy". 4 position on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Picture Books for the week of February 20, 2011.[174]. He inserts himself into a previously conducted interview with a musician, and then manipulates his questions, resulting in bizarre and comic responses from the celebrity. On May 31, 2014, Yankovic won the ACE Award (Amateur Cartoonist Extraordinaire) from the National Cartoonists Society at its awards banquet in San Diego. [14], Most of Yankovic's studio albums include a polka medley of about a dozen contemporary songs at the time of the album, with the choruses or memorable lines of various songs juxtaposed for humorous effect. Much was also made over his apparent lack of a love life, though he got married shortly after the program aired. Yankovic's record label, TK Records, went bankrupt about two weeks after the single was released, so Yankovic received no royalties from its initial release.[24]. Yankovic competed on a week of Wheel of Fortune taped at Disney's Hollywood Studios in March 1994. The song "Ricky" was released as a single and the music video received exposure on the still-young MTV. This also appears in the song "Albuquerque". There's no plan. [123] For legal reasons, video clips (apart from those for Yankovic's own music videos) could not be shown for the home release, and unreleased parodies were removed from the parody medley for the performance. [124], In 2003, Yankovic toured overseas for the first time. were presented as having a larger impact on the direction of his career than they really had. However, due to a combination of Yankovic's more complex musical scores (involving horns and other instruments), and drug-related issues that Derringer had at that time, Yankovic took over production of his albums in 1992.[22]. [196], Similar to the Weird Al Star Fund, a second fan-driven campaign called "Make the Rock Hall 'Weird'" has tried to enshrine him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, for which he has been eligible since 2004. [14] Television producer Michael Schur considered that Yankovic's music represented a "deep egalitarian spirit of our culture" that allowed his comedy writers to reflect on society within his shows. [131], Starting in June 2019, Yankovic went on his "Strings Attached Tour", where he performed every show backed by a forty-one piece orchestra assembled from local musicians. [133][134] Yankovic had the shows open with the orchestra performing a few instrumental themes, seemingly giving the concert a high-brow quality, before he and his band entered and played his songs backed by the orchestra. Unlike other parody artists such as Allan Sherman, Yankovic and his band strive to keep the backing music in his parodies the same as the original, transcribing the original song by ear and re-recording the song for the parody. These five digitally released songs were packaged as a digital EP titled Internet Leaks, with "Whatever You Like" retroactively included in the set. [197] A 2009 Rolling Stone poll named Weird Al as the top artist that should be nominated for the Hall of Fame, followed by Rush (who were inducted in 2013) and The Moody Blues (inducted in 2018) in the top ten. [145], UHF shows the creation of Yankovic's signature food—the Twinkie Wiener Sandwich. Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, satirist, actor, music video director, and author who is known for humorous songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. [102] Yankovic commented on the legal complications of the parody in the DVD audio commentary for UHF, explaining "We had to name that song 'Money for Nothing "slash" Beverly Hillbillies "asterisk"' because the lawyers told us that had to be the name. Another recurring joke is his attraction to female nostrils or nostrils in general. The episode was updated and re-released in early 2012 as part of the "Behind the Music Remastered" series. Yankovic vraagt echter wel altijd de artiest van het originele nummer toestemming zijn/haar lied te mogen parodiëren, ondanks het feit dat dit volgens de Amerikaanse wet officieel niet hoeft vanwege de fair use-regeling. [94] Yankovic himself was amazed with the response he got from the album and video releases, stating that "I've been doing the same thing for 30 years and all of a sudden I'm having the best week of my life"[94] and that he "kind of stumbled on my formula for the future". Yankovic reasoned, "If Madonna's allowed to reinvent herself every 15 minutes, I figure I should be good for a change at least once every 20 years. [70] In some cases, in requesting the original band to allow for his parody, the band will offer to help out with the recreation: Dire Straits members Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher perform on "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*", Yankovic's parody of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing", while Imagine Dragons provided Yankovic with advice on how to recreate some of the electronic sounds they used for "Radioactive" in Yankovic's parody "Inactive". The DualDisc version of Straight Outta Lynwood features six videos set to songs from the release, including videos created by Bill Plympton and John Kricfalusi; one video, "Weasel Stomping Day" was created by the producers of the show Robot Chicken, and aired as a segment of that program. Yankovic had a guest appearance voicing Wreck-Gar, a waste collection vehicle Transformer in the Transformers: Animated cartoon series;[150] previously, Yankovic's "Dare to Be Stupid" song was featured in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie, during the sequence in which the Wreck-Gar character was first introduced; as such, the song is referenced in the episode. They rehearsed the song just a few times before the show began. They'd get up on stage with their acoustic guitar and do these lovely ballads. [32], Yankovic has also started to explore digital distribution of his songs. In addition to shedding his glasses, he had shaved off his moustache and grown out his hair. Up through 1992, six of Yankovic's albums were produced by Rick Derringer, for which he won two Grammy Awards.