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Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (IPA pronunciation: ; born October 23 1959) is an American musician, satirist, parodist, songwriter, accordionist, and television producer. Yankovic is known in particular for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. Since receiving his first accordion lesson a day before his seventh birthday, he has sold more than 12 million albums and recorded more than 150 parody and original songs. His works have earned him three Grammy Awards amongst nine nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the U.S. 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 has made guest appearances in television shows such as The Simpsons, Behind the Music, I Love the 80s 3-D, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and Robot Chicken.

Biography

YOU SUCK

YOU STILL SUCK

YOUR STILL SUCKY

HI JAMISON

I DID THE YOU SUCK THING TOO

Misattribution and imitators

Songs posted to file sharing networks are often misattributed to him due to their humorous subject matter. Often, his surname is misspelled (and thus mispronounced) as "Yankovich", amongst other variations. Much to the disdain of Yankovic, these misattributed files include 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 "Star Wars Cantina" by Mark Jonathan Davis (later of Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine), "Star Wars Gangsta Rap", "Yoda Smokes Weed", "Chewbacca" and several more have a Star Wars motif. Some songs misattributed to him aren't even songs, but as spoken skits, such as "Sesame Street on crack", which is also widely misattributed to Adam Sandler.

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, and a list of all commercially released songs recorded by Yankovic can be found on his website.

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 US$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 then-$15,000 target, just five days before the May 31 deadline to submit the necessary paperwork. However, Yankovic was not included on the list of inductees for 2007. On February 9, 2007, the Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce raised the price to sponsor a new star to $25,000. It is uncertain whether Yankovic's application will be considered in the 2007 nomination round due to this increased price, and as such the Fund is accepting donations again.

Discography

• "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983)
• "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D (1984)
• Dare to Be Stupid (1985)
• Polka Party! (1986)
• Even Worse (1988)
• "Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits (1988)
• UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989)
• Off the Deep End (1992)
• The Food Album (1993)
• Alapalooza (1993)
• Permanent Record: Al In The Box (1994)
• Greatest Hits Volume II (1994)
• The TV Album (1995)
• Bad Hair Day (1996)
• Running With Scissors (1999)
• Poodle Hat (2003)
• Straight Outta Lynwood (2006)

Awards and nominations

• 1959 births
• American accordionists
• American comedy musicians
• American male singers
• American satirists
• American singer-songwriters
• American vegans
• American voice actors
• Falsettos
• Grammy Award winners
• Living people
• Parody musicians
• People from California
• Polka musicians