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'Weird Al' Yankovic (born October 23, 1959'Weird Al' Yankovic is an American musician best known for his song parodies of contemporary radio hits. His lyrics depend largely on the satirizing of popular culture including television, movies, food, music, and news stories. Yankovic's work earned him three gold and five platinum records in the U.S., one platinum DVD of music videos, and three Grammy awards. [1]

Though parodies earned him his fame, Al has recorded a greater number of humorous songs with original tunes. Some of these pieces are pastiches (or of work to emulate rather than any single hit. Most of his albums include a medley which juxtaposes the choruses of various songs in a polka to accordion music. Yankovic's diversity as a performer causes many comedy songs to be incorrectly identified as "Weird Al" tracks, especially on Internet file sharing networks. [2].

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic, the only son of Nikolas Louis Yankovic (a Serb-American) and Mary Elizabeth Vivalda (of Italian descent), 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 senior at Lynwood High School in Lynwood, California at the time, but that tape was the start of his eventual career.

Three years later, Al 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. 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 the hall from the radio station 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's hit, "Another One Bites The Dust". While practicing the song outside the sound booth, Al ran into 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, 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", an unusually (for Al) dark 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 sarcastic suggestion that denial is the natural solution ("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!"). The Placebo EP recording of that song was recently remixed into stereo by Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz for inclusion on the Hurricane Katrina charity compilation .

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 player, and Jim West played guitar. With "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, the band was complete. In 1992, Rubén Valtierra joined the band on keyboards, to allow Al to concentrate more on singing during concerts.

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 that intertwined fact and fiction of his life up to that point. The movie was co-directed by Jay Levey, who would direct (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.

Rick Derringer would produce all of Al's CDs until the 1992 release . After Derringer's departure, Al began to produce his own albums. Al has since produced three albums, with a fourth on its way in early 2006.

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 from a fire that had been burning. 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.

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 ("Can't Watch This"), movies ("The Saga Begins"), food ("Eat It"), 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 humor lies more in creating unexpected incongruity between an artist's image and the topic of the song, contrasting the 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 pastiches or "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"), Nirvana ("Callin' In Sick"), The Police ("Velvet Elvis"), ACDC ("Young, Dumb And Ugly"), James Taylor ("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"), R.E.M ("Frank's 2000" TV"), and Harry Chapin and Gordon Lightfoot ("The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota"). In the case of "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?", it was not only a Ben Folds "

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 "The Alternative Polka," "Angry White Boy Polka" and "Polka Power!" "Bohemian Polka" is unique in that it is not a medley; rather, it is a full rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

One of his most controversial parodies was Amish Paradise, a spoof of the song Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio. Coolio's label gave Weird Al permission to parody his work and gave the impression that Coolio gave his permission as well, but Coolio maintains that he himself never gave permission. Coolio was upset, but legal action never materialized, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song. After this happened, Al always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied.

He has contributed songs to several films, including the original song "This Is The Life", featured on the soundtrack for Johnny Dangerously; the title track to his own movie, , the title track to a 1996 Leslie Nielsen movie directed by Rick Friedberg. He also contributed the song "Dare to Be Stupid" to

Weird Al has directed many of his own music videos, 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, The Black Crowes, Ben Folds, Jeff Foxworthy, and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. He also directed the title sequence to Spy Hard, in which he sang the title song.

Yankovic has received three Grammy Awards 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." Despite that, his 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 s recurring fictitious dweeb character Larry Groznic (November 10, 2004), who called Weird Al's music "the consummate pastiche of popular songwriting s for our times." The article also referred to one real-life indication of Yankovic's status: Krist Novoselic of the band Nirvana 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. 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 for which he would not want to be known. 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. A list of songs performed by Weird Al can be found at The Not Al List. Despite the fact that these songs were not written or performed by Weird Al, they continue to be associated with him, and thus have given Al a controversial reputation among some because several of these songs were racist, explicit, or otherwise offensive. Many of these songs are also explicitly sexual, which is something Al does not do. He often has mild double entendres in his songs, but is not overtly sexual in them.

- 1989: A commercially unsuccessful movie satirizing the television industry, starring Yankovic, Michael Richards, Fran Drescher and Victoria Jackson. It has since become a cult classic, 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. - 1991: A collection of I Love Lucy music. Al's contribution as producer doesn't seem to extend past the title track. - 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" - 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., 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 and Much Music many times, 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 ). 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 film appearances, including all three films. He currently plays a role in the "Haunted Lighthouse 4-D" Show at the Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay theme parks. He has also appeared in cartoons such as series.

Al made a celebrity cameo appearance on an episode of The Simpsons that originally aired on April 13, 2003, singing "Homer and Marge" (a parody of John Mellencamp's "Jack Diane") with his band. The episode, "Three Gays of the Condo" later won an Emmy for "Outstanding Animated Program (For Progamming Less Than One Hour)".

Al also appeared as an alien in an episode of Amazing Stories; that episode was "Miss Stardust". He played a green, "broccoli-headed" talent agent for the Earth's solar system.

Al appeared on Solid Gold in 1985 performing "Like A Surgeon", where television viewers first saw his now-famous parody of Madonna's "virgin dance".

Al has appeared on numerous talk shows, most notably , (performing "Yoda" and "Hooked On Polkas"), but it wasn't until August 2005 that he made it onto the Tonight Show With Jay Leno, backing friend Ben Folds on the tamborine.

In 2005, Weird Al made his appearance in the segment "Movies that Should've Been Made in 3D" on VH1's I Love the 80s 3-D.

Al has put two 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 Al's signature food is a Twinkie-wiener sandwich which consists of a Twinkie split open, hot dog, and Cheez Whiz. Recently in several interviews, Al has stated that he has switched to using vegetarian hot dogs due to becoming a vegetarian, but still enjoys them as his favorite snack. (He also likes to dip them in milk.) This can be seen in Al often includes the number 27 somewhere in his songs, album art, and memorabilia. Examples are Al wearing a 27 on the cover of the 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 allegedly without consulting him, however there has been no legal action and Coolio still cashes royalty checks from the song. Al has taken the high road and apologized for the alleged misunderstanding. Also, 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 only out of courtesy and convenience. Because parody is recognized as fair use under copyright laws, Weird Al is actually free to parody any artist's work without permission. He mostly asks for permission to maintain good relationships and avoid pointless lawsuits.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.Like Page, Michael Jackson is also a big fan of Weird Al. However, Jackson has allowed Yankovic to parody his songs. When he learned that Weird Al was going to do a parody of "Bad" ("Fat"), Jackson gave Al the use of the set used for the "Bad" music video, just so Al could parody it.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.Al is of no relation to famous accordionist Frankie Yankovic, but Al did play accordion for "Who Stole the Kishka" on one of Frankie's final records, . Frankie also cameo'd in a special by Al for the 1986 Grammys. When Frankie died in 1998, however, a woman he knew on the east coast called him and errantly told him, "I'm sorry your dad died". This was very jarring to Al at the time; however, the unfortunate asphyxiation of his real parents in 2004 was even more so.Surprisingly, Al is considered to be one of the very best accordionists in the world, having played at a virtuoso level since childhood.Al's song "The Saga Begins" (a parody of Don McLean's "American Pie"'Weird Al' Yankovic is notable because it accurately states the entire plot of , despite being written before the film. Al got everything he needed from rumor websites. He was slightly unsure about Anakin proposing to Amidala, so he attended a $500 screening to make sure. [6]While Al has never had a #1 single in the United States, "Eat It" reached the #1 position in Australia in 1984.

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, with release date, and highest Billboard Chart position:

A 12th album is currently in production as of July 2005. Weird Al plans on going on tour in Summer 2006, causing fans to predict the release of the album in either February, March, or April 2006.Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture Pokémon The Movie 2000: The Power Of One - July 18, 2000; #85 (includes "Polkamon")The Not Al Page attempts to list tracks which are often wrongly attributed to Weird Al and discover their true origins.Al-oholics Anonymous The largest fan-based site for Weird Al, including photos, sounds, and video clips.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]Make the Rock Hall "Weird" The grassroots campaign to get Al inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame