The Untold Truth Of Weird Al Yankovic

Weird Al Yankovic is an odd superstar, but considering his dedicated fan base, a shelf full of major awards, and decades-long career that is seemingly going stronger than ever, superstar is the only accurate category for him. Nerdy, lanky, and armed with an ... accordion, of all things, Weird Al has carved a niche for himself in mainstream music that even the thousands of imitators on YouTube can't shift him from.

There's a striking lack of salaciousness about Weird Al Yankovic, which should come as no surprise to anyone who's caught his episode of "Behind the Music," where Al was baffled as to why such a controversy-free celebrity like himself would even be considered for the series. Still, just because there's an absence of scandal doesn't mean there isn't plenty of Al-formation that hasn't yet pervaded the mainstream consciousness. As such, each of the following truths about Weird Al should successfully make your head explode just like "Scanners."

Had Weird Al's unique skill as a parodist (and shockingly underrated prowess as a legitimate musician) failed to turn into a lifetime gig, there's no question that he was smart enough to make his way in some other field, as Today I Found Out explains. Al started kindergarten a year early, skipped second grade, graduated from Lynwood High School in Lynwood, California at 16, and went on to attend California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he received his bachelor's degree in architecture. Could we have had the next Frank Lloyd Wright on our hands? The world will never know.

Over the years, most artists have been cool with Weird Al parodying their tunes — Dave Grohl once told Jon Stewart that he felt Nirvana "had arrived" when Al parodied them — but there are a few less sporty types as well. Paul McCartney's reason for not wanting Al to turn "Live and Let Die" into "Chicken Pot Pie" is one you'd expect from him (he's a staunch vegetarian), and Al took that one in stride. He did the same thing when Daniel Powter balked at turning "Bad Day" into "Bad Date," and although Powter ultimately changed his mind, it was too late. As Al told the Toronto Sun, "I had to inform him that the train had left the station."

Ultimately, though, the artist who's gained the most notoriety for refusing Al's overtures is Prince, who famously turned down every single pitch that Al sent his way. And there were a lot. "I had a parody of 'Let's Go Crazy' that was about 'The Beverly Hillbillies,'" Al told People. "And I wanted to do something funny with 'When Doves Cry,' and 'Kiss.' For '1999,' I wanted to do an infomercial where you could get anything you wanted by dialing 1-800-something-1999." Clearly, the two had different ideas of what was funny, to say the very least.

Written and recorded while Brian Wilson was under the care of Dr. Eugene Landy, a period detailed in the 2015 film "Love & Mercy," the "Sweet Insanity" album abruptly disappeared from Warner Brothers' 1991 release schedule when the master tapes were stolen. Among the material lost in the theft: "Let's Stay Together," featuring Weird Al on accordion. Obviously, he was beyond honored to play with the Beach Boy, because who wouldn't be?

If you're wondering why Wilson didn't just re-record the songs, he explained as much to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2015: "We thought that maybe people wouldn't like it, so we junked it." Yes. Brian Freakin' Wilson and Al Also Freakin' Yankovic collaborating on anything. Who would want something like that?

Weird Al has had a longer and more illustrious career than a good many of the artists he's parodied, but it's likely that none of it ever would have happened without Barry Hansen, also known as Dr. Demento. His syndicated radio show was one of the only places to hear comedy and novelty records in the '70s, and his first submission from a 16-year-old high school senior named Alfred Yankovic arrived on his desk in early 1976. The song was too weird to resist: accompanying himself on accordion (of course), the kid extolled the virtues of his family's Plymouth Belvedere while badmouthing other family cars. "When he sang the line, 'there's something about a Comet that makes me want to vomit,'" Demento told The Washington Post, "that kind of perked up my ears."

The tune was a big hit with Demento's fans, but it wasn't until Al got to college that he found his signature—wacky parodies. He kept Demento's fans supplied with them, and they kept asking for more. Long before Al stormed the national scene with "Eat It," he was already — and remains to this day — the most requested artist in the history of the Dr. Demento Show. He doesn't have the most requested song, however — that would be "Fish Heads" by Barnes and Barnes, the video for which was directed by a young Bill Paxton. We think Al's probably okay with that. After all, fish heads are yum.

Weird Al sought permission for his parodies even in those early days, and it's a good thing, because the practice made him some important connections. The songwriters of "I Love Rock and Roll," whom Al approached about his ice cream-based parody, were totally down with the idea, and their manager also happened to manage Rick Derringer, per Entertainment Weekly whom they thought might have some interest in working with Al.

They turned out to be right. Derringer, who performed as a member of the McCoys on the oldie standard "Hang on Sloopy" and had had a solo hit with the ridiculously titled "Rock and Roll Hootchie-Koo," hit it off with Al, and would go on to produce his first six albums. According to longtime engineer Tony Papa (via The Washington Post), Al began taking on production duties when Derringer was too drunk, high, or coked out to sufficiently do the job (although Derringer predictably disputes this.) Al took over production duties permanently beginning with 1992's "Off the Deep End," but Derringer should always have a place in our hearts for guiding the young artist through his early years ... but not for attempting to popularize the phrase "hootchie-koo." For that, he deserves a brisk slap.

One of Weird Al's biggest hits during his Dr. Demento days was "Another One Rides the Bus," featuring Al and his squeezebox with a guy banging on the accordion's case for rhythm accompaniment. That guy was Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, per the AV Club, and he is Al's drummer to this day, having played on every single one of his records. Al picked up the rest of his band right around the same time, including guitarist Jim West and bassist Steve Jay, who have played with him since 1982. He's also had the same keyboardist for over two decades, and everybody calls him "the new guy."

These guys are the unsung heroes of both music and comedy. Whatever they're called upon to do, they execute it perfectly, and they're called upon to do a lot. From parodies of everything from Michael Jackson to Nirvana to Pharrell Williams to all of Al's original songs and insane polka medleys, there's simply nothing they can't handle. They've even been known to pull out and ace straight covers, being particularly fond of Elvis Costello's classic "Radio, Radio."

Fittingly, they received their most extensive face time in the video for the song that may be Weird Al's crowning achievement, if we were forced to name just one with a gun to our heads. That would be, by the way ...

It feels like Weird Al has been wildly popular for as long as music has, and you might expect him to own a string of Top 10 hits longer than a ... really, really long string. Not only is this untrue, but some of his most beloved songs have peaked at shockingly low positions on the charts. "Amish Paradise?" #53. "Smells Like Nirvana?" #35, for crying out loud. Even the more recent "Word Crimes," helped along by a viral video, only reached #39. Before 2006, "Eat It" was still his greatest chart success, peaking at #12 ... and then came "White & Nerdy."

Weird Al finally managed a #9 hit, while stunning all of us with his ability to rap even better than the guy he was parodying. Billboard records that the charting world made up for their delay to him in 2014, when he achieved his first number one album with "Mandatory Fun" — the first comedy album to reach that spot in over 40 years, with ridiculous sales of over 100,000 in its first week. This makes sense — listening to the album was mandatory, after all.

Much of the world has forgotten that Weird Al once made a movie (via MTV), and this — at the risk of hyperbole — is a crime against humanity. 1989's "UHF" is the story of a loser who inherits a failing local TV station and makes it over in his own zany image, and it plays like a complete distillation of Weird Al's comic sensibility.

With appearances from Michael Richards, Victoria Jackson, Fran Drescher, Kevin McCarthy, and Gedde Watanabe, "UHF" combined slapstick, sketch comedy, music parody, and sheer lunacy in a way that contemporary audiences perhaps weren't ready for. It was received terribly upon its theatrical release, sending Al into a three-year creative slump that wouldn't end until he laid eyes on the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit." It's since become a cult comedy classic, but we're of the firm opinion that the "cult" part of that description needs to go. It's the only Weird Al movie we're ever likely to get, it's freaking hilarious, and you should go watch it right now, before we make you drink from The Fire Hose.

Stories don't get much sadder than the one about the death of Weird Al's parents. On April 9, 2004, Nick and Mary Yankovic — aged 86 and 81, respectively — were found dead in their home, having accidentally succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning after starting a fire in the fireplace with the flue closed. Al's parents were well familiar to his fans, having appeared in his mockumentary, "The Compleat Al," as well as in his episode of VH-1's "Behind the Music," so the news of their death was startling and saddening. No one, however, was more shocked and devastated than Weird Al himself, who learned of his parents' passing by phone from his wife. (He was on tour at the time.)

After taking some time to deal with his grief, Al issued a formal, thoughtful, and thankful statement (via Blog Critics) about his parents' death, inspiring more than a few tears in the process.

With his near-shot-for-shot video parodies, it's no surprise that Weird Al got the attention of MTV's early viewers. But fortunately for us, some suit was also smart enough to capitalize on the fact that Al was hilarious even without an accordion in his hands. On April Fools Day 1984, right around the time "Eat It" was getting serious traction on MTV, "Al TV" premiered on the network — a sendup of the very concept of Music Television itself.

The show's conceit: That Al had pirated MTV's broadcast, hijacking it for several hours in order to play his videos, read fan mail, and conduct hilariously edited mock interviews with celebrities (via the New York Times). This became a regular occurrence, with new editions popping up every few years or so until 2006. In the intervening years, many of those interviews — like the ones featuring Kevin Federline, Jessica Simpson, Avril Lavigne, and Eminem — have become practically legendary, racking up millions of views on YouTube, and we're here to tell you that this is only right, because every last one of them is hysterical.

Speaking of Weird Al's writing process: If it appears easy or even lazy to simply graft silly lyrics onto existing songs, we can assure you it is neither. Setting aside his considerable body of original material and "style parodies" (in which he sends up a specific artist's steez without parodying one particular song), it's no small feat to expertly mimic the structure, rhyme schemes, and meter of another artist's lyrics — particularly when that artist is s pretty good rapper like, say, Chamillionaire.

In a 2020 New York Times piece, Al used his 2006 classic "White and Nerdy" as an example to illustrate just how he gets down with writing his straight parodies, and it is intensive, to say the least. Using a computer filing system that is apparently deeper than Lake Michigan, he composes multiple variants of practically every line in every song, juggling them to see what sounds right, in a process that can take weeks or months to complete. For instance, the line "M.C. Escher, that's my favorite M.C." was selected from no fewer than eight possible versions, and it constitutes a sliver of the lyrics. The dumbstruck Times author noted that Al easily could have created an entirely different song out of all of the alternate lines that were ultimately scrapped, and obviously, it would have been just as hilarious.

It's interesting to note that Weird Al's habit of asking for permission to do parody tunes might also have a definitive beginning. After "My Bologna" blew up on the Dr. Demento show, Al had an experience with the original artist — The Knack lead singer and rhythm guitarist Doug Fieger — that could only be described as "overwhelmingly positive." As described by Dr. Demento himself in the liner notes to Al's box set "Permanent Record," the budding parodist "weaseled his way" backstage when The Knack came to town for a show, bumped into Fieger, and was shocked when the dude actually knew who he was.

It turned out that Fieger was familiar with and a fan of "My Bologna," and fortuitously enough, the president of his band's label, Rupert Perry, also happened to be at the show. Being the incredibly cool guy that he was, Fieger convinced Perry on the spot to press up and distribute "My Bologna" on Capitol (likely reasoning that, hey, there was even more money to be made from "My Sharona"). The 20-year old Al scored $500, a six-month contract, and was over the moon about the whole thing. Of course, the relationship with Capitol ended up not working out — and if you happen across a 45 of "My Bologna" on the label, you're looking at a collectors' item.

Weird Al might have been ready for the world following his first major-ish label release, but that doesn't mean the world was necessarily ready for him yet. His schtick and his persona were still a bit narrow; that debut album is the only of his LPs to feature the accordion on every song, and his goofy parodies of contemporary hits weren't yet a known commodity. Scotti Brothers weren't even exactly sure how to market him — which is probably how he and his newly-formed band, who did not yet have a defined audience, wound up opening for popular new wave act Missing Persons, who decidedly did, in Santa Monica in 1981.

It did not go well. Speaking to Dr. Demento, Al described it thusly: "We got pelted for 45 minutes. Everything they could possibly find to throw. I've never seen any opening act treated that badly. After the first song, nobody even applauded, they just screamed 'Get off the stage!' Later that night, after suffering that humiliating defeat, I was walking to my car in the parking lot, and this 12 year old boy comes up to me and says 'Are you Weird Al?' I said yes, and he said 'YOU SUCK!'" A nightmare, for sure, but there was a silver lining. The polka medley the band played that night would evolve into "Polkas on 45," the first such medley on any of Al's albums.

Weird Al is inextricably linked with food, and it's nobody's fault but his own. Throughout all of his many, many early food-based song parodies, he must have name-dropped virtually everything on the planet that is edible at some point — so it's a little surprising to learn that for decades, he's been described at various points as being either vegan or vegetarian.

In a 2014 interview with Bon Appetit, Al explained, "I don't eat meat. Sometimes I stray from the vegan thing and do dairy products, so I'm somewhere between a vegan and a vegetarian right now. I try to eat vegan, but I've slipped too many times to be a card-carrying vegan." It's not due to his lifestyle that he cooled off on all of those food songs after his early career, however. "I wrote a lot of songs about food in the '80s. I've tried to get away from food parodies in the last few decades. I think people thought they were funny because there just weren't a lot of pop songs about food then," he explained. "It was a novelty to hear it on the radio ... Now that I'm competing with thousands of people on YouTube, I've been trying not to take the easy, obvious route anymore, because a lot of other people are taking it."

While Aaron Paul's unhinged portrayal of Weird Al in that old Funny or Die bit was hilarious, one must admit that Daniel Radcliffe stepping into the role for the actual "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" feature is ingenious casting on its face. This, of course, is because Al hand-picked Radcliffe to play him — and in a conversation with Jimmy Fallon on his late night talk show, Radcliffe revealed why. "When I talked to Al for the first time, I was like, 'I'm immensely flattered at the idea you picked me, but like, why me?'" he remembered. Al's answer: He had seen Radcliffe, over a decade earlier, rattling off an impromptu performance of humorist Tom Lehrer's tongue-twisting novelty song "The Elements" on the BBC's "The Graham Norton Show," and made a mental note.

After Radcliffe's appearance, Al took to Instagram to post a clip of the performance in question, along with the caption: "There are MANY reasons why I wanted to cast Daniel Radcliffe in my movie, but this is what really clinched the deal for me. (He's going to absolutely kill this.)" Somehow, we suspect that the nerdy accordion player who parlayed his bizarre sense of humor into a legendary, award-winning career in entertainment knows what he's talking about.