Has been a vegetarian ever since A girlfriend at the time gave him the book "Diet for a New America", and Weird Al said he felt it made some compelling arguments to be vegetarian. He currently eats no meat and tries also to avoid dairy and egg products. As a rule, all parody ideas are his, with one exception: "Like a Surgeon" came about from a comment Madonna made asking when he was going to turn "Like a Virgin" into that parody.
Said he knew he had made it as a famous musician when he went to a party, saw Paul McCartney and before he could introduce himself to the former Beatle, McCartney recognized him and said, "Hey!
It's Weird Al! One of the few artists to consistently turn down Weird Al's requests to do parodies has been Prince. After years of asking, Weird Al tried a different tactic: he requested permission to parody one of Prince's videos but not the song itself ; to his surprise, approval was granted. Incidentally, Weird Al's song "Amish Paradise" contains the lyric "So tonight we're gonna party like it's ", a reference to Prince's single "".
Another artist to have denied parody permission is Paul McCartney. As a result, Weird Al has never released the song, but has performed it in concert. Has directed music videos by other artists, notably "Only a Fool" by The Black Crowes, and "The River" by the boy-band Hanson which was itself a parody of Titanic Says his most frequent question by reporters is "Do you write any original songs?
Along with his trademark song parodies, most of his albums include a track in which Al and his band perform polka-style but lyrically faithful renditions of popular hits he is an accordionist, after all.
Most of these have been eclectic medleys of recent hits, although the "Hot Rocks Polka" from the UHF soundtrack was a collection of The Rolling Stones hits, and the album "Alapalooza" featured a complete polka version of Queen's classic "Bohemian Rhapsody", called "Bohemian Polka".
His official website, WeirdAl. When he asked Nirvana for permission to parody "Smells Like Teen Spirit", their first question was, "Will it be about food? When Weird Al explained that "Smells Like Nirvana" would be about how nobody could understand their singing, they agreed that it sounded funny and granted permission. His album covers are frequently parodies as well: Michael Jackson's album "Bad" was spoofed as "Even Worse" Weird Al even hired the same photo, artwork and wardrobe team to replicate the cover precisely ; Nirvana's album "Nevermind" became "Off the Deep End" with Al replicating the naked baby in the pool photo himself ; and the Jurassic Park soundtrack was turned into "Alapalooza".
His video for "Fat" was filmed in the same parking garage as Michael Jackson's "Bad", and included several of the same actors and dancers. The "fat suit" he wore which weighed 40 pounds caused him to lose weight, not only because it made him sweat profusely, but the sight of himself as being grotesquely obese made him want to eat less. He used the money he earned from "My Bologna" to found his own short-lived record label, Placebo Records, which released his second record an "EP" record with only four songs.
Copies of the record are hot collector's items. The contract that allows his records to be released by record companies outside the United States also grants permission for those companies to use other cover artwork. As a result, some truly bizarre covers have been produced, particularly in Japan and other non-English-speaking areas. The spot showed a figure from the back, in a "Thriller"-style jacket, who then turned to reveal it was Weird Al.
He was offered the opening spot for the European leg of Michael Jackson's "Bad" tour. However, he was involved in the production of his movie UHF at the time, and respectfully declined. Has released his own version of "Peter and the Wolf"; this is a collaboration with electronic-music-pioneer Wendy Carlos.
He wrote "Yoda" a parody of The Kinks' song "Lola" as far back as , but could not release it until with his third album, "Dare to Be Stupid", because Ray Davies considered the song too personal for parody. However, after the massive success of "Eat It", Davies was convinced that Weird Al could successfully perform the parody while respecting the original.
After graduating from college, he applied to work at McDonald's, but was rejected for being overqualified. Contrary to popular belief, Weird Al is not under any explicit obligation to obtain permission from the composers of the songs he parodies -- courts in the United States and other countries have consistently given great latitude to parody, almost always ruling that it is protected under the tenets of free expression and social critique the exceptions are generally cases where the resulting work violates principles of good taste.
However, out of respect for his peers in the entertainment industry, he has always asked permission, and the Coolio controversy notwithstanding has consistently abided by the artists' wishes. When he requested permission to parody Dire Straits' song "Money for Nothing", authorization was granted -- with the stipulation that Mark Knopfler a huge fan of Weird Al be allowed to play lead guitar on the song. After Blunt's record company, Atlantic Records, granted permission, Weird Al recorded the song, but then permission was revoked.
Although he abided by the decision the song isn't on his new album , Weird Al responded by putting the song on his MySpace page for free download, and there's a not-so-subtle snipe at Atlantic Records in the new music video "White and Nerdy". His maternal grandfather, Alfred Vivalda, was an Italian immigrant, and his maternal grandmother, Fairy Kidwell, was born in Kentucky, and had English ancestry.
Another person who turned down Weird Al's request for a parody was Yoko Ono. McCartney turned the decision over to Ono, who told Weird Al she didn't feel comfortable with his parodying the song.
Shortly after the release of the album "Straight Outta Lynwood", it was noted that Weird Al's trademark number 27 could be seen in the license plate on the car on the cover. After doing a short polka parody of "Jocko Homo", members of Devo ran into Weird Al at a party and asked why they weren't worthy of a full song parody.
Weird Al responded with the pastiche piece "Dare to Be Stupid". Reportedly, the members of Devo were not impressed. Is longtime and devoted friends with the late George Harrison, whom he respected as a singer and songwriter. Harrison even accepted his permission, therefore, it was released as a song off his album "Even Worse". Recorded his self-titled debut album at Cherokee Recording Studios The album sold over , copies.
While he uses the original music in his parodies, it is not the original master track. He and his band take the original and transpose it by ear into a new key.
That line woke me up. Over the ensuing decades Yankovic would amass an authoritative body of seriously silly work. Many of his songs have tweaked the overarching seriousness of the entertainment world while also demonstrating a canny grasp of what is au courant in the pop music world at any given time. On the other hand, some artists are more than willing. Today, Yankovic has outlasted many of the acts he lampooned — lovingly, for the most part — including Survivor, Men Without Hats and the Police.
As far as Yankovic is concerned, musicians who incorporate humor into their work in a big way are often marginalized. Novelty or not, Yankovic is genuinely excited about moving into a new phase of his career, one that embraces the technological changes that have flummoxed many in the music business. He was supposed to last like 15 minutes. Follow RandyLewis2 on Twitter. For Classic Rock coverage, join us on Facebook. Could Travis Scott face criminal charges after the Astroworld tragedy?
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