Artist: Weird Al Yankovic Genre(s):
Comedy
Rock: Comedy Rock
Discography:
Straight Outta Lynwood Year: 2006
Tracks: 12
Poodle Hat Year: 2003
Tracks: 12
Bad Hair Day Year: 1996
Tracks: 12
Bad Hair Day Year: 1996
Tracks: 12
Weird Al Yankovic Year:
Tracks: 12
Running With Scissors Year:
Tracks: 12
Polka Party Year:
Tracks: 10
Off The Deep End Year:
Tracks: 12
In 3d Year:
Tracks: 11
Even Worse Year:
Tracks: 11
Dare To Be Stupid Year:
Tracks: 11
Alapalooza Year:
Tracks: 12
The foremost birdsong lampooner of the MTV era, "Weird Al" Yankovic carried the flashlight of musical mood more than proudly and more successfully than whatever performing artist since Allan Sherman. In the world of novelty records -- a musical genre famous for its extensive indorse catalogue of flashes-in-the-pan and one-hit wonders -- Yankovic was top executive, marking ruin afterward bang up over the course of an long-suffering life history which found him topically gibelike everything from newfangled undulation to gangsta knock.
Alfred the Great Matthew Yankovic was born October 23, 1959, in Lynwood, CA. An only baby, he began playing the squeeze box at age seven, undermentioned in the tradition of polka star Frank Yankovic (no sex act); in his former teens he became an devouring fan of the Dr. Demento prove, draftsmanship intake from the parodies of Allan Sherman as good as the musical clowning of Spike Jones, Tom Lehrer, and Stan Freberg. In 1973 Demento rung at Yankovic's school, where the 13 year old passed the wireless horde a demo tape of base recordings; three eld later, Demento played Yankovic's "Belvedere Cruising" -- an accordion-driven come out strain written around the family's Plymouth -- on the air, and his calling was launched.
Yankovic quickly emerged as a staple of the Demento playact heel, recording a olympian amount of tongue-in-cheek material throughout his highschool vocation. After commencement, he studied architecture; piece attending California Polytechnic State University, he besides united the stave of the campus radio station, commencement adopting the nickname "Weird Al" and spinning a mixture of freshness and new moving ridge hits. In 1979, the success of the Knack's teras strike "My Sharona" inspired Yankovic to record a takeoff dubbed "My Bologna"; non only was the sung dynasty a smash with Demento fans, merely it even base favour with the Knack themselves, wHO positive their label, Capitol, to way out the irony as a single.
Later on graduating in 1980, Yankovic cut "Some other One Rides the Bus," a takeoff of Queen's chart-topping "Some other One Bites the Dust" recorded live in Dr. Demento's studios; the song became an resistance shoot, and Yankovic followed it up with "I Love Rocky Road," a caustic remark of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' "I Love Rock 'n Roll." After hooking up with notable academic term guitar player and producer Rick Derringer, he sign-language to Scotti Bros., which issued his debut LP,
"Weird Al" Yankovic, in 1983. The album featured the sung dynasty "Ricky," a tune divine as by Toni Basil's hit "Paddy" and the
I Love Lucy tv series; issued as a single, it hit the Top one C charts, and its sequent telecasting became a raw material of the fledgling MTV network.
Ultimately, much of Yankovic's success resulted from his skilled use of music picture, a mass medium non available in the earned run average of Spike Jones or Allan Sherman; on the spur of the moment, non only could records themselves serve as travesty fodder, only their television clips were ripe for caustic remark as easily. Additionally, MTV hard naturalized Yankovic's populace character; betting gaudy Hawaiian shirts, nappy hair, and an armoury of goofy mannerisms, he cut a clearly freaky figure which he systematically used to uttermost risible effect. After Michael Jackson's "Beat It" became the about acclaimed picture in the medium's brief history, Yankovic recorded "Eat It" for his sophomore attempt, 1984's
"Weird" Al Yankovic in three-D; the "Eat It" video, which mocked the "Beat It" clip scene-for-scene, became an MTV smash, and the Grammy-winning unmarried reached the Top 15.
In addition to "Eat It,"
In three-D besides launched the minor hits "King of Suede" (a rewrite of the Police's "King of Pain") and "I Lost on Jeopardy" (a sendup of the Greg Kihn Band's "Endangerment"), as well as "Polkas on 45," the first in a series of medleys of pop hits recast as polka numbers pool.
Defy to Be Stupid, the get-go comedy track record ever released in the new compact disk format, followed in 1985, and featured "Like a Surgeon," a takeoff of the Madonna hit "Like a Virgin." Like its predecessor,
Make bold to Be Stupid went amber, merely 1986's
Polka Party! fared ailing and charted only concisely, suggestion many to drop a line off Yankovic's career.
However, in 1988, Yankovic returned with the platinum-selling
Even Worse, its title and record album cover a reference point to Michael Jackson's recent
Bad LP. "I'm Fat," the get-go single and telecasting, likewise parodied the unstinting Martin Scorsese-directed clip for Jackson's hit "Bad"; shot on the like subway congeal used by Jackson, the video -- which depicted Yankovic as a grotesquely rotund tough guy -- won him his instant Grammy. The future year, he starred in the feature plastic film
UHF, which he likewise co-wrote; a soundtrack appeared as well.
After an extended geological period of quiet, he returned in 1992 with
Off the Deep End, which featured the Top 40 hit "Smells Like Nirvana," a sendup of Nirvana's landmark single "Smells Like Teen Spirit." After 1993's
Alapalooza, he resurfaced in 1996 with
Bad Hair Day, his highest-charting record to date thanks to the success of the single "Amish Paradise," a takeoff of the Coolio hit "Gangsta's Paradise." The follow-up,
Running with Scissors, appeared in 1999, with
Poodle Hat landing in 2003.
Straight Outta Lynwood appeared in 2006 with the unmarried "White & Nerdy," a suburban parody of Chamillionaire's hit "Ridin."
