He introduced himself as the My Bologna guy, and perhaps surprisingly, The Knack were fans of Al and his parody. Demento show, and would eventually meet up with The Knack one day after a concert. Demento specialized in playing novelty songs, parodies, comedy, and pretty much anything a little bit on the weirder side of life. Encouraged by his father that the secret to a successful life would be to do what makes him happy, Al would record My Bologna in a radio station bathroom and send the tape of it off to his favorite radio station DJ, Dr. Born in 1959, his parents would buy him an accordion at seven years old. Prior hits included Ricky (the I Love Lucy themed parody of Toni Basil’s Mickey), I Love Rocky Road (parodying I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts), Another One Rides The Bus (parodying Another One Bites The Dust by Queen), and My Bologna (parodying My Sharona by The Knack).Īlfred Matthew Yankovic grew up in Lynwood, California. While Eat It was his biggest hit song for two decades, reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, his awesomeness did not materialize out of thin air. I soon discovered earlier popular parodies of his. The simplicity is strangely, yet undeniably, entertaining.) Now that I was properly initiated into the comedic joy that is Weird Al, I had to go back into his catalog and learn more about this undeniable talent. Sometimes I enjoy them even more so than his brilliant parodies, just hearing him take modern pop, rap, and rock songs and put them into a medley with a polka beat. Who was this polka-playing comedy genius!?!!! (Let’s take a moment and give a quick shout-out to Al’s album’s deep cuts, the polka songs. I went out and spent my hard-earned paper route dollars on that vinyl album on which Eat It was found, Weird Al In 3-D. Parodying the Michael Jackson video so perfectly well, getting heavy airplay on MTV, it was hard to escape this brilliant nugget of comedic parody. The song was great, but the video was pure genius. My initiation into the Zen of Weird Al Yankovic was Eat It, which is, of course, the parody of Michael Jackson’s Beat It. My older brothers scoffed at me and rolled their eyes, and went back to listening to their Led Zeppelin, or whatever it is that older brothers listen to. I was not even double-digit years old, but I knew that this accordion-player was the coolest guy on the planet. Doubling over in laughter as his latest parody was released and came into my life. As a young ‘un, I can remember the sheer joy of hearing Weird Al Yankovic come on the radio or on MTV.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |