"Weird Al" Yankovic

"Weird Al" Yankovic

Alfred Matthew Yankovic (born on October 23, 1959), better known as "Weird Al" Yankovic, is a musician, satirist, parodist, accordionist, and television producer. He is known in particular for his humorous songs which make light of popular culture, parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts, or both.

Since receiving his first accordion lesson a day before his seventh birthday, he has recorded more than 150 parody and original songs and sold more comedy albums than any other artist. His works have earned him three Grammy Awards amongst nine nominations, plus three gold and five platinum records in the United States. Yankovic's first Top 10 Billboard album and single were both released in 2006, nearly three decades into his career.

In addition to recording his albums, Yankovic has written and starred in his own movie and television show; directed music videos for himself and other artists including Ben Folds and Hanson; and had guest appearances in television shows such as The Simpsons and Behind the Music. Because of his success and popularity, users of internet file sharing networks often misattribute many parodies to Yankovic. Because some of these misattributed songs are racist or otherwise offensive, this often results in some listeners forging a negative image of the family-friendly Yankovic, much to his disdain.

Biography

The only child of Nick and Mary Yankovic, Alfred's first accordion lesson was October 22, 1966 a day before his seventh birthday. A door-to-door salesman traveling the Lynwood neighborhood offered the Yankovic parents a choice of accordion or guitar lessons for a local music school. Yankovic claims the reason his parent's chose accordion over guitar was "they figured there should be at least one more accordion-playing Yankovic in the world", referring to Frankie Yankovic, to whom he is no relation. He continued lessons at the school for three years before continuing to learn on his own. Yankovic's early accordion role models include Frankie Yankovic and Myron Floren (the accordionist on The Lawrence Welk Show). In the 1970s, Yankovic was a big fan of Elton John and claims John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album "was partly how I learned to play rock 'n roll on the accordion." He would repeatedly play the album and try to play along on his accordion.

A fan of Dr. Demento's radio show (a comedy radio program featuring humorous music) since 1971 or 1972, Yankovic first sent Demento a home made tape in 1976. The tape's first song was entitled "Belvedere Cruisin'", a song about his family's current vehicle; another song included on the tape which never received airtime was entitled "Dr. D Superstar", a parody of "Jesus Christ Superstar". Demento admits "'Belvedere Cruising'[sic] might not have been the very best song I ever heard, but it had some clever lines [...]I put the tape on the air immediately." Yankovic was a senior at Lynwood High School at the time, but that tape was the start of his eventual career.

During Yankovic's sophomore year as an architecture student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he became a disc jockey at the university's radio station, KCPR. According to Yankovic, he had been called "Weird Al" in the university's dormitory, but he "took it on professionally" as his persona for the station. In summer 1979, shortly before his senior year, "My Sharona" by The Knack was on the charts and Yankovic took his accordion into the restroom across the hall from the radio station (to take advantage of the echo chamber acoustics) and recorded a parody entitled "My Bologna" and sent it to Dr. Demento, whose listeners frequently requested the parody. Yankovic met The Knack after a show at his college, introduced himself as the author of "My Bologna". Doug Feiger admitted he liked the song and suggested that Capitol Records vice president Rupert Perry release the song as a single. "My Bologna" was released as a single with "School Cafeteria" as its B-side, and the label gave Yankovic a six month recording contract.

On September 14, 1980, Yankovic was a guest on the Dr. Demento Show, where he was to record a newly-written parody live on the air. The song was 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, he met Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, who told him he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Yankovic's accordion case to help Yankovic keep steady beat to the song. They rehearsed the song just a few times before recording the song live. "Another One Rides the Bus" became so popular that Yankovic's first television appearance was a performance of the song onThe Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. On the show, Yankovic played his accordion, and again, Schwartz banged on the accordion case in addition to providing comical sound effects. The rare 1981 Placebo EP release of this song has the track "Happy Birthday" as a B-side. "Happy Birthday" is a dark song about the world's problems and imminent destruction, with the sarcastic suggestion that denial is the natural solution. The Placebo EP recording of the song was remixed into stereo by Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz in 2005 for inclusion on a Hurricane Katrina charity compilation featuring various other comedy musicians.

1981 brought Yankovic on tour for the first time as part of Dr. Demento's stage show. His stage act in a Phoenix, Arizona nightclub caught the eye of manager Jay Levey, who was "blown away." Levey asked Yankovic if he had considered creating a full band and doing his music as a career. Yankovic agreed, so Levey held auditions. Steve Jay became Yankovic's bass player, and Jay's friend Jim West played guitar. With Schwartz on drums, the band was complete. In 1991, Rubén Valtierra joined the band on keyboards, allowing Yankovic to concentrate more on singing during concerts. Yankovic's first show with the 1981 band was not successful at all. Yankovic and his band were the opening act for Missing Persons. The unimpressed audience threw items at the group, and they were booed off the stage.

In 1985, Yankovic co-wrote and starred in a mockumentary of his own life entitled The Compleat Al that intertwined fact and fiction of his life up to that point. The movie also featured some clips from Yankovic's trip to Japan and some clips from the Al TV specials. The Compleat Al was co-directed by Jay Levey, who would direct UHF four years later. Also released around the same time as The Compleat Al was The Authorized Al, a biographical book based on the film. The book, resembling a scrap book, included real and fictional, humorous photographs and documents. A factual biographical booklet of Yankovic's life, written by Dr. Demento, was released with the 1994 box set compilation Permanent Record: Al In The Box and is available for viewing online. The Dr. Demento Society, which issues yearly Christmas re-releases of material from Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes, often includes unreleased tracks from Yankovic's vaults, such as "Pacman", "It's Still Billy Joel To Me" or the live version of "School Cafeteria."

Yankovic's "classic" look before eye surgery, with glasses and mustache

In January 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery and shaved off his mustache, radically changing his trademark look. Yankovic commented that "Millions of girls actually found me hot for the first time!" He parodied the reaction to this "new look" in a commercial for his non-existant MTV Unplugged special. The commercial featured Yankovic in the short-haired wig from the music video for The Saga Begins, claiming his new look was an attempt to "get back to the core of what I'm all about", that being "the music." Although his "official" look does not feature facial hair, he is often seen with a goatee; most notably, on the album art for the 2006 release, Straight Outta Lynwood.

While not related, Yankovic had a noted friendship with fellow accordionist Frankie Yankovic. Weird Al played accordion and sung backing vocals for one of Frankie's final records, Songs of the Polka King, Vol. 1. Frankie made a cameo appearance in a special by Weird Al for the 1986 Grammys, where the two covered clips of Grammy-nominated songs on their accordions. When the elder accordionist died in 1998, a woman Weird Al knew called him and errantly told him, "I'm sorry your dad died", which gave him "a good jolt" at the time.

Yankovic married Suzanne Krajewski on February 10, 2001. Their daughter, Nina, was born February 11, 2003. They also have a pet poodle, Bela (pictured atop Yankovic's head on the cover of his album, Poodle Hat), and a pet cockatiel named Bo Veaner.

On April 9, 2004, Yankovic's parents, Nick, 86, and Mary, 81, were found dead in their Fallbrook, California home, apparently the victims of carbon monoxide poisoning from their fireplace that had been recently lit. The flue was closed, which trapped the carbon monoxide gas inside the house, suffocating them. An hour after his wife notified him of his parents' death, Yankovic went on with his concert in Mankato, Minnesota, saying that "since my music had helped many of my fans through tough times, maybe it would work for me as well" and that it would "at least ... give me a break from sobbing all the time."

It is often noted that Yankovic's career in novelty and comedy music has outlasted many of his "mainstream" parody targets, such as Toni Basil, MC Hammer, Men Without Hats and Crash Test Dummies. Furthermore, most novelty artists are often one hit wonders, but Yankovic's continued success (including a top 10 single and album in 2006) has enabled him to escape the "one hit wonder" stigma often associated with novelty music.

Yankovic's work

Songs

Main article: List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Yankovic is best known for his song parodies ("Eat It"), though he has actually recorded a greater number of original humorous songs ("You Don't Love Me Anymore" and "One More Minute"). His work depends largely on the satirizing of popular culture, including television (see The TV Album), movies ("The Saga Begins"), food (see The Food Album), 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 concerns lampooning the original artist. Yankovic's humour lies more in creating unexpected incongruity between an artist's image and the topic of the song, contrasting the style of the song with its content, or in pointing out trends or works which have become pop culture clichés.

Unlike other parody artists such as Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman, Yankovic strives to keep the backing music in his parodies the same as the original. While Lehrer reproduced the songs on piano and Sherman reproduced them on guitar, Yankovic and his band essentially play the original song with new lyrics. One example is 2006's Canadian Idiot. The song starts almost identically to American Idiot, and the difference between the songs can go unnoticed until the lyrics begin.

In addition to his parodies, Yankovic also includes a medley of various songs on most albums, each one reinterpreted as a polka, with the choruses or memorable lines of various songs juxtaposed for humorous effect. Yankovic has been known to say that converting these songs to polka was "...the way God intended." Because the polkas have become a staple of Yankovic's albums, he has said he tries to include one on each album because "fans would be rioting in the streets, I think, if I didn't do a polka medley."

Some of his original songs are pastiches or "style parodies", where he chooses a band's entire body of work to honour/parody rather than any single hit by that band (for example, Devo with "Dare to Be Stupid", They Might Be Giants with "Everything You Know is Wrong", or Talking Heads with "Dog Eat Dog"). Sometimes, it is obvious as to which band's style Yankovic is parodying, but often it is subjective. One person may hear influences from one band, while another may hear influences from a different band. Some style parodies are in the style of a genre of music, rather than a specific band.

Yankovic has contributed original songs to several films ("This Is the Life" from Johnny Dangerously; "Polkamon" from the movie Pokémon: The Movie 2000, and a parody of the James Bond title sequence in Spy Hard), in addition to his own film, UHF. Other songs of his have appeared in films or television series as well, such as "Dare to Be Stupid" in Transformers: The Movie.

Yankovic's recurring jokes include the number 27 and the names Bob, Frank and Leroy Finkelstein. Also, a hamster called Harvey the Wonder Hamster is a recurring character in The Weird Al Show and the Al TV specials. The Harvey the Wonder Hamster theme song was first officially released on the Alapalooza album. Yankovic has also put two backmasking messages into his songs: the first, in "Nature Trail to Hell", said "Satan Eats Cheez Whiz"; the second, in "I Remember Larry", said "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands."

His latest three album releases feature the longest songs Yankovic has ever released. The "Albuquerque" track from Running with Scissors is 11 minutes and 23 seconds; "Genius in France" from Poodle Hat runs for 8 minutes and 56 seconds; "Trapped in the Drive Thru" from Straight Outta Lynwood is 10 minutes and 53 seconds long. To date, these "epic" songs have never been played live because of their length and complexity. One exception to this is Albuquerque, which was been performed once, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Reactions from original artists

Under the "fair use" provision of U.S. copyright law – affirmed by the United States Supreme Court — one does not need permission to record a parody. However, as a personal rule, Yankovic has always requested permission from the original artist before recording his parodies, as a means of maintaining good relationships within the music community. While artists are generally pleased with Yankovic's parodies, there have been a few notable exceptions.

Positive

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana said that the band felt they had "made it" after Yankovic recorded "Smells Like Nirvana", a parody of the grunge band's smash hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Kurt Cobain called Yankovic an American "rock genius" in his private journals. On his Behind the Music special, Yankovic stated that when he called Kurt to ask if he could parody the song, Cobain gave him permission, then paused and asked "Um...it's not gonna be about food, is it?" Yankovic responded with "No, it'll be about how no one can understand your lyrics."

Michael Jackson is also a big fan of Yankovic. Jackson has twice allowed him to parody his songs ("Beat It" and "Bad" became "Eat It" and "Fat"). When he granted Yankovic permission to do "Fat", Jackson allowed him to use the same set built for his own "Bad" video from the Moonwalker video. Though Jackson was a good sport about "Eat It" and "Fat", he requested that Yankovic not record a parody of "Black or White", because he felt the message was too important. However, Yankovic has performed a concert-only parody "Snack All Night" in some of his live shows. Yankovic also has a cameo appearance, along with many other celebrities, on Jackson's music video for Liberian Girl.

The song "The Saga Begins" (a parody of Don McLean's "American Pie") accurately states the entire plot of The Phantom Menace, despite being written before the film's release. Yankovic got the plot details from rumour websites. He was slightly unsure about Anakin proposing to Amidala, so he attended a $500 screening to confirm. McLean was pleased with the parody (though the rumors that he performs in the video were false); additionally, George Lucas loved the song and a LucasFilm representative told Yankovic "You should have seen the smile on his face."

Chamillionaire also put Weird Al's parody "White & Nerdy" on his official Myspace page saying "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy [...] I didn't know he could rap like that." He also said "It's really an honor when he does that. [...] Weird Al is not gonna do a parody of your song if you're not doing it big."

Negative

One of Yankovic's most controversial parodies was 1996's "Amish Paradise", based on "Gangsta's Paradise" by hip-hop artist Coolio. Reportedly, Coolio's label gave Yankovic the impression that Coolio had granted permission to record the parody, but Coolio maintains that he never did. Complicating the issue further, "Gangsta's Paradise" already samples heavily from a Stevie Wonder song, "Pastime Paradise." While Coolio claimed he was upset, legal action never materialised, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song. After this controversy, Yankovic has always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied. At the XM Satellite Radio booth at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show Yankovic and Coolio made peace. On his website, Yankovic wrote of this event, "I don’t remember what we said to each other exactly, but it was all very friendly… I doubt I’ll be invited to Coolio’s next birthday party, but at least I can stop wearing that bulletproof vest to the mall."

In 2003, Yankovic was denied permission to make a video for "Couch Potato", his parody of Eminem's "Lose Yourself":

"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."

For the Poodle Hat Al TV special, Yankovic raised the question of artistic expression in a false interview with Eminem. As always, Yankovic edited the footage of a previous Eminem interview and inserted himself asking questions such that it made Eminem sound like a hypocrite on the matter of an artist's right to free speech.

Refused parodies

On numerous occasions, Prince has refused Yankovic permission to record parodies of his songs. However, Yankovic has stated in interviews that he has "approached him every few years [to] see if he's lightened up."

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is a self-proclaimed Yankovic fan, but when Yankovic wished to create a polka medley of Led Zeppelin songs, Page refused. Yankovic, however, was allowed to re-record a sample of "Black Dog" for a segment of "Trapped in the Drive Thru."

Paul McCartney, also a Yankovic fan, refused Yankovic permission to record a parody of Wings' "Live and Let Die", entitled "Chicken Pot Pie" because McCartney is a vegetarian. However, like "Snack All Night", "Chicken Pot Pie" has been performed numerous times in concert. This is not unusual for Yankovic, as his concerts often feature parodies for which the artist did not give permission or could not otherwise be released. However, all these "concert only" songs remain unreleased by Yankovic.

In 2006, Yankovic gained James Blunt's permission to record a parody of "You're Beautiful". However, after Yankovic had recorded "You're Pitiful", Blunt's label, Atlantic Records, rescinded this permission. The parody was pulled from Yankovic's Straight Outta Lynwood due to his label's unwillingness to "go to war" with Atlantic. Yankovic released the song as a free download on his MySpace profile, as well as his official website, since it was not Blunt himself objecting to the parody. In the "White & Nerdy" video, Yankovic's character is seen vandalising the record label's Wikipedia entry with the exclamation "YOU SUCK!" After the video was released online, Wikipedia's Atlantic Records article mirrored the video with numerous "vandals" editing it. Yankovic has said that he does not approve of the vandalism, though he admits being amused by it. The page has since been semi-protected by Wikipedia.

UHF

Main article: UHF (film)

UHF original theatrical poster

In 1989, Yankovic starred in a full length feature film, co-written by himself and manager Jay Levey, and filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma called UHF. A satire of the television and film industries, also starring Michael Richards, Fran Drescher and Victoria Jackson, it scored floundering studio Orion their highest test-scores since the movie RoboCop. However, it was unsuccessful in theaters, likely due to a release in the summer of 1989, going up against Ghostbusters II, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, and more.

The film has since become a cult classic, with out-of-print copies of the VHS getting as high as $100 on eBay until the release of the DVD in 2002. Yankovic occasionally shows clips from the film at his concerts (to which MGM, the film's current owner, initially objected in the form of a cease and desist letter). To apparently make it more accessible, the film was titled The Vidiot From UHF in Australia and parts of Europe.

UHF shows the creation of Yankovic's signature food - the Twinkie-wiener sandwich. The snack consists of an overturned Twinkie split open as a bun, a hot dog, and Easy Cheese. Yankovic has stated that he has switched to using tofu hot dogs since becoming a vegetarian, but still enjoys them as his favorite snack.

Notable television appearances

File:WeirdAlShow Complete.jpg

DVD cover for The Weird Al Show

Yankovic had a TV series called The Weird Al Show, 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 his adult fans. The entire series was released on DVD by Shout! Factory on August 15, 2006.

Yankovic has hosted Al TV on MTV and Al Music on MuchMusic many times, generally coinciding with the release of each new album. For Poodle Hat, AL-TV appeared on VH1 for the first time. A recurring segment of AL-TV involves Yankovic manipulating interviews for comic effect. He inserts himself into a previously conducted interview with a musician, then manipulates his questions, resulting in bizarre and comic responses from the celebrity.

VH1 produced a Behind the Music episode on Yankovic, however, he was so clean-cut that the producers could not find any of the typical angst-laced problems that make many rock stars' stories compelling (as Yankovic noted in the episode), so they stretched many smaller disappointments and skirmishes during his career into major downfalls to fit the program's classic formula. His two commercial failures, his film UHF and his 1986 album Polka Party! were presented as having a larger impact on the direction of his career and Coolio's later disapproval of "Amish Paradise" was played up as a large feud. Much was also made over his apparent lack of a love life.

Yankovic was also featured in a 2003 episode of The Simpsons, singing "Homer & Marge" (a parody of John Mellencamp's "Jack & Diane") with his band. The episode, "Three Gays of the Condo", in which Marge hires "Weird Al" to sing the aforementioned song to Homer in an attempt to reconcile their marriage, later won an Emmy for "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)."

Yankovic appeared in Adult Swim's Robot Chicken episode "The Munnery" two days before his album Straight Outta Lynwood was released, where the music video for his song "Weasel Stomping Day" (made in stop motion by the Robot Chicken crew) debuted. Along with the "Weasel Stomping Day" short, Yankovic also appeared in another short during the episode.

Following appearances as the Squid Hat on the TV show of the same name, in 2006 Yankovic voiced the announcer in the video game The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.

An exhaustive list of television shows on which Yankovic has appeared is available on his official website.

Directing career

"Weird Al" Yankovic has directed many of his own music videos; he has directed all of his music videos from 1993’s “Bedrock Anthem” to his latest, 2006’s “White and Nerdy." He also directed the end sequence of 1986’s “Christmas at Ground Zero” (an original piece juxtaposing Christmas with nuclear warfare) from his “Polka Party” LP and the title sequence to Spy Hard, for which he sang the title song.

In addition to his own, he has directed several videos for Hanson (The Titanic sequences in "River"), The Black Crowes ("Only A Fool"), Ben Folds ("Rockin' the Suburbs"), Jeff Foxworthy ("Redneck Stomp" and "Party All Night") and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion ("Wail"). He has cameo appearances in his videos for Hanson (as the interviewer) and Ben Folds (as the producer fixing Folds' "shitty tracks").

Misattribution and imitators

Because Yankovic is arguably the most successful parody artist, songs posted to file sharing networks are often misattributed to him due to their humorous subject matter. Much to the disdain of Yankovic, this includes songs that are racist, sexually explicit, or otherwise offensive. A young listener who had heard several of these offensive tracks by way of a file sharing service confronted Yankovic online, threatening a boycott due to his supposedly explicit lyrics. Quite a few of the songs, such as "I Wanna Be a Stormtrooper" by Anarchy Steering Committee, "Star Wars Cantina", "Star Wars Gangsta Rap", "Yoda Smokes Weed", "Chewbacca, What a Wookie" and several more have a Star Wars motif. The large number of Star Wars related songs attributed to him is somewhat surprising, as to date Yankovic has only sung two Star Wars related songs: a parody of The Kinks hit "Lola" called "Yoda", and of Don McLean's "American Pie" about The Phantom Menace called "The Saga Begins". There are also others such as "Windows 95 Sucks" and "I Ran Over the Taco Bell Dog." In addition, some of these parodies are only a minute long.

Yankovic cites these misattributions as "his real beef with P2P sites":

"If you do a search for my name on any one of those sites, I guarantee you that about half of the songs that come up will be songs I had absolutely nothing to do with. That particularly bothers me, because I really try to do quality work, and I also try to maintain a more-or-less family-friendly image – and some of these songs that are supposedly by me are just … well, vulgar and awful. I truly think my reputation has suffered in a lot of people's minds because of all those fake Weird Al songs floating around the Internet."

A list of songs not by Yankovic can be found at The Not Al List. Alternatively, a list of all commercially released songs recorded by Yankovic can be found on his website's Recording Dates Page.

Weird Al Star Fund

The Weird Al Star Fund is a campaign started by Yankovic's fans to get him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Their mission is to "solicit, collect, and raise the necessary money, and to compile the information needed for the application to nominate 'Weird Al' Yankovic for a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame." Fans worldwide have sent donations to raise the $15,000 needed for a nomination. In addition to the preferred method of cash donations, many methods were used to raise money for the cause, such as a live benefit show held April 11 2006, and selling merchandise on the official website and eBay, including t-shirts, calendars, and cookbooks. On May 26 2006, the campaign hit the $15,000 target -- just 5 days before the May 31 2006 deadline to submit the necessary paperwork. However, Yankovic was not included on the list of inductees for 2007. His application will automatically be reconsidered in 2007 for the possibility of receiving his star in 2008.

Awards and album certification

• "Eat It" — Grammy Best Comedy Recording (1984)
• "Fat" — Grammy Best Concept Video (1988)
• Poodle Hat — Grammy for Best Comedy Album (2003)
• Six other Grammy nominations
• The "Eat It" single reached the #1 position on the Australian singles chart in 1984.

U.S. gold records "Weird Al" Yankovic The Food Album Alapalooza

U.S. platinum records "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D Dare to Be Stupid Even Worse Off the Deep End Bad Hair Day Running With Scissors

U.S. gold long form videos The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library Alapalooza: The Videos "Weird Al" Yankovic Live! Bad Hair Day: The Videos

U.S. platinum long form videos The Ultimate Video Collection

Canadian gold records "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D Even Worse Greatest Hits Greatest Hits Volume II Running With Scissors

Canadian platinum records Off the Deep End Bad Hair Day

Canadian double platinum records Alapalooza

Gold singles "Eat It" (U.S., Canada, & Australia)

Source: Weirdal.com and RIAA

Selected discography

Main articles: "Weird Al" Yankovic discography and List of singles by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Since Yankovic secured a recording contract in 1982, he has released many albums and parodies. The following is a list of his full length albums to date, with United States release date, and highest Billboard Chart position:

Album art	Album information
	"Weird Al" Yankovic Released: April 26, 1983 (U.S.) Label: Scotti Brothers Chart Positions: #139 (U.S.) Singles: "My Bologna," "Another One Rides the Bus," "Ricky," "I Love Rocky Road"
	"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D Released: February 28, 1984 (U.S.) (Gold) Label: Scotti Brothers Chart Positions: #17 (U.S.) Singles: "Eat It," "I Lost On Jeopardy," "King Of Suede"
	Dare to Be Stupid Released: June 18, 1985 (U.S.) Label: Scotti Brothers Chart Positions: #50 (U.S.) Singles: "Like a Surgeon," "I Want a New Duck," "One More Minute," "Dare to Be Stupid"
File:Weird Al Yankovic - Polka Party!.jpg	Polka Party! Released: October 21, 1986 (U.S.) Label: Scotti Brothers Chart Positions: #177 (U.S.) Singles: "Living With a Hernia," "Christmas at Ground Zero"
	Even Worse Released: April 12, 1988 (U.S.) Label: Scotti Brothers Chart Positions: #27 (U.S.) Singles: "Fat," "Lasagna," "I Think I'm a Clone Now"
File:Weird Al Yankovic - UHF.jpg	UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff Released: July 18, 1989 (U.S.) Label: Scotti Brothers Chart Positions: #146 (U.S.) Singles: "UHF," "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies," "Isle Thing"
	Off the Deep End Released: April 14, 1992 (U.S.) Label: Scotti Brothers Chart Positions: #17 (U.S.) Singles: "Smells Like Nirvana," "You Don't Love Me Anymore," "Taco Grande," "The White Stuff," "I Can't Watch This"
File:Weird Al Yankovic - Alapalooza.jpg	Alapalooza Released: October 5, 1993 (U.S.) Label: Scotti Brothers Chart Positions: #46 (U.S.) Singles: "Jurassic Park," "Bedrock Anthem," "Achy Breaky Song"
File:Weird Al Yankovic - Bad Hair Day.jpg	Bad Hair Day Released: March 12, 1996 (U.S.) Label: Scotti Brothers Chart Positions: #14 (U.S.) Singles: "Amish Paradise," "Gump," "The Night Santa Went Crazy"
File:Weirdal scissors.jpg	Running With Scissors Released: June 29, 1999 (U.S.) Label: Volcano Chart Positions: #16 (U.S.) Singles: "The Saga Begins," "It's All About the Pentiums," "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi"
	Poodle Hat Released: May 20, 2003 (U.S.) Label: Volcano Chart Positions: #17 (U.S.) Singles: "Couch Potato," "Bob"
	Straight Outta Lynwood Released: September 26, 2006 (U.S.) Label: Volcano Chart Positions: #10 (U.S.) Singles: "Don't Download This Song," "White & Nerdy," "Canadian Idiot"

Videography

File:Weird Al Yankovic The Ultimate Video Collection.jpg

DVD cover for The Ultimate Video Collection

The following is a comprehensive list of his long form videos to date, with the United States release date.

• The Compleat Al - August 1985
• UHF - July 21 1989
• The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library - May 1992
• Alapalooza: The Videos - December 1993
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Collection - 1993
• Bad Hair Day: The Videos - June 1996
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Videos - January 1998
• "Weird Al" Yankovic Live! - November 23 1999
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection - November 3 2003
• The Weird Al Show - The Complete Series - August 15 2006

Cameos and special appearances

• Tapeheads - 1988
• The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad! - 1988
• The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear - 1991
• The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult - 1994
• Spy Hard - 1996
• Safety Patrol - 1997
• Nothing Sacred - 1998
• Desperation Boulevard - 2002
• Haunted Lighthouse 4-D - 2003

External links

• Official site
• Template:MySpace-music
• "Weird Al" Yankovic at IMDb
• "Weird Al" Yankovic discography at MusicBrainz
• Weird Al Wiki, MediaWiki-powered wiki dedicated to everything Weird Al