ladyislingering
retired
Weird Al Yankovic
On October 23rd, 1959, an extraordinarily bizarre creature was born. Little did Downey, California know, this hooligan would soon live nearby, in Lynwood, for the majority of its adolescence. Lynwood would thus be declared the home of the Weird One.
He began with the accordion; prompted by a traveling salesman, his parents had a choice between gifting the Weird One with an accordion or guitar. At age 6 his lessons began; he continued until he was almost ten, and decided to continue practicing on his own. Brilliant by nature, he started kindergarten a year earlier than the other children, and even progressed from 1st to 3rd grade - skipping 2nd grade entirely. He was a straight-A student and the valedictorian of his senior class. In high school he was part of the "Volcano Worshipers Club" for the sake of having a picture in the yearbook - which he provided many of the captions for. Which, I can only imagine, were hilarious.
Inspired by the likes of Elton John, Allan Sherman, Frank Zappa, Tom Lehrer, Sparks, and countless others, Al Yankovic thrived on all that was particularly unusual. He also fancied the Mad Magazine, the Monty Python comedy troupe, and the Zucker films (e.g.; Airplane, Kentucky Fried Movie, Top Secret).
Al's first career choice was not music. He actually earned a degree in architecture at the California Polytechnic State University. However, when he was 16, he submitted a tape to radio personality Dr. Demento, who was impressed with the talent of young Al. Al continued to play at small coffee shops, covering tunes with his accordion in tow. He earned his nickname of "Weird Al" in college when he became a disc jockey for the school's radio station. I can only imagine the havoc in that studio.
Al's first song to actually gather popular attention within the area was entitled "My Bologna" - a parody of the Knack's "My Sharona", which was a #1 hit in 1979. He recorded it in a bathroom and sent it to his trusty hero, Dr. Demento, who gave it some airplay. There was definitely a positive reaction to Al's triumph: Al soon met with Doug Fieger and the boys of The Knack. Doug said he liked the song, and wanted it to be released as a single. So it was. Al earned a six-month recording contract with Capitol records (home of the Knack).
It was then that Al decided to screw his future career in architecture, and pursue comedic music instead. In April of 1980, Al appeared as a guest on the Dr. Demento show, to record a parody he'd just written: "Another One Rides the Bus" (sound familiar? Queen, "Another One Bites the Dust"). He then enlisted the drummer that would stick with him for the majority of his career: Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz.
In 1981, Weird Al went on tour with his new band, which consisted of Steve Jay (bass), Jim West (guitar), and of course, Jon on drums. In June they opened for Missing Persons. Al's first top-40 hit was produced by Rick Derringer; it was a parody of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock n' Roll", titled, "I Love Rocky Road". It reached #6 in 1982.
After the success of this single, Al signed with Scotti Brothers Records and cut his first LP, self-titled, in 1983. 1984 was a memorable year for Al; his second album "Weird Al Yankovic in 3-D" was released with a slew of popular parodies and polka covers of popular songs, its first single being "Eat It" (a parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It") which climbed into social consciousness with a silly video to match.
Another notable song from this album was "I Lost On Jeopardy" - a parody of Greg Kihn's "Jeopardy". Among the blips of song covered by Al's accordion in the style of polka music (otherwise known as the "Polkas on 45" medley): "Smoke on the Water" (Deep Purple), "In a Gadda da Vida" (Iron Butterfly), "Hey Joe" (Jimi Hendrix), and "My Generation" (The Who).
In 1985 Al wrote and starred in a film "mockumentary" of his life, "The Compleat Al". Four years later he would star in his own film, "UHF".
(part two coming shortly.)
My favorite parody he did is already listed with "Amish Paradise"! I thought it was hilarious that Coolio flipped out about "Weird Al" parodying the song because it was too serious to parody. Now I loved "Gangstas Paradise" but anything is up for parody and 
