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Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (Template:PronEng; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, actor, satirist, parodist, songwriter, accordionist, and television producer. Yankovic is known in particular for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often 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 (more than any comedy act in history), recorded more than 150 parody and original songs, and has performed more than 1,000 live shows. His works have earned him three Grammy Awards among nine nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the United States. Yankovic's first top ten 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 film and television show, directed music videos for himself and other artists including Ben Folds and Hanson. He has also made guest appearances on television shows such as Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, The Simpsons, Behind the Music, Johnny Bravo, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Robot Chicken, and Transformers: Animated in addition to starring in his own Al TV specials.

Biography

Early life

The only child of Nick Yankovic (June 4, 1917–April 9, 2004; an American of Serbian descent) and Mary Elizabeth (née Vivalda; February 7, 1923–April 9, 2004, an American of Italian and English descent), Alfred was born in Downey, California, and raised in the neighboring town of Lynwood. Nick was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and began living in California after serving during World War II. He believed "the key to success" was "doing for a living whatever makes you happy" and often reminded his son of this philosophy. Nick married Mary Vivalda in 1949. Mary, who had come to California from Kentucky, gave birth to Alfred ten years later.

Alfred's first accordion lesson was on October 22, 1966, a day before his seventh birthday. A door-to-door salesman traveling through Lynwood offered the Yankovic parents a choice of accordion or guitar lessons at a local music school. Yankovic claims the reason his parents 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 has 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. As for his influences in comedic and parody music, Yankovic lists artists including Tom Lehrer, Stan Freberg, Spike Jones, Allan Sherman, Shel Silverstein and Frank Zappa "and all the other wonderfully sick and twisted artists that he was exposed to through the Dr. Demento Radio Show." Other sources of inspiration for his comedy come from Mad magazine, Monty Python, and the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker parody movies.

Yankovic began kindergarten a year earlier than most children, and he skipped the second grade. "My classmates seemed to think I was some kind of rocket scientist so I was labeled a nerd early on," he recalls. As his unusual schooling left him two years younger than most of his classmates, Yankovic was not interested in sports or social events at school. He claims to have been a "straight A" student throughout high school, which earned him the honor of becoming valedictorian of his senior class. Yankovic was fairly active in his school's extracurricular programs, including the National Forensic League (in which he "usually brought home some kind of trophy"), a play based upon Rebel Without a Cause, the yearbook program (for which he wrote most of the captions), and the Volcano Worshipper's Club, "which did absolutely nothing. We started the club just to get an extra picture of ourselves in the yearbook."

Dr. Demento, "My Bologna," and early fame

In 1976, Yankovic, then a high school senior, sent a homemade tape to Dr. Demento, the host of a comedy radio program. The tape's first song was "Belvedere Cruisin", about his family's Plymouth Belvedere; another song included on the tape (which never received airtime) was "Dr. D Superstar", a parody of the title song from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Demento said "'Belvedere Cruising' 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 also played at local coffeehouses saying,

It was sort of like amateur music night, and a lot of people were like wannabe Dan Fogelbergs. They'd get up on stage with their acoustic guitar and do these lovely ballads. And I would get up with my accordion and play the theme from '2001.' And people were kind of shocked that I would be disrupting their mellow Thursday night folk fest.

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. Yankovic said he had been nicknamed "Weird Al" by fellow students and "took it on professionally" as his persona for the station. In 1978, he released his first recording (as Alfred Yankovic), "Take Me Down", on the LP, Slo Grown, as a benefit for the Economic Opportunity Commission of San Luis Obispo County. The song mocked famous local landmarks such as the fountain toilets at Madonna Inn.

In mid 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". He sent it to Dr. Demento, who played it to good response from listeners. Yankovic met The Knack after a show at his college, and introduced himself as the author of "My Bologna". The Knack's lead singer, Doug Fieger, said 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. Yankovic, who was "only getting average grades" in his architecture degree, began to realize that he might make a career of comedic music.

On September 14, 1980, Yankovic was a guest on the Dr. Demento Show, where he was to record a new parody live. 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 a steady beat during the song. They rehearsed the song just a few times before the show began. "Another One Rides the Bus" became so popular that Yankovic's first television appearance was a performance of the song on the The Tomorrow Show (April 21, 1981) with Tom Snyder. On the show, Yankovic played his accordion, and again, Schwartz banged on the accordion case and provided comical sound effects.

The band and fame

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 admitted that he had, so Levey held auditions. Steve Jay became Yankovic's bass player, and Jay's friend Jim West played guitar. Schwartz continued on drums. Yankovic's first show with his new band was on March 31, 1982. Several days later, 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.

Yankovic recorded "I Love Rocky Road" (a parody of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" as recorded by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts) in 1982. Due to the influence of his new producer, Rick Derringer, it managed to become a hit on Top 40 radio, leading to Yankovic's signing with Scotti Brothers Records. In 1983, Yankovic's first self-titled album was released on Scotti Bros. He released his second album "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D in 1984. The first single "Eat It", a parody of the Michael Jackson song "Beat It", became quite popular, thanks in part to the music video, a shot-for-shot parody of Jackson's "Beat It" music video, and to Yankovic's self-styled "uncanny resemblance" to Jackson. Peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Eat It" remained Yankovic's highest-charting single until "White & Nerdy" placed at number 9 in October 2006.

In 1985, Yankovic co-wrote and starred in a mockumentary of his own life entitled The Compleat Al, which intertwined the facts of his life up to that point with fiction. 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 scrapbook, included real and fictional humorous photographs and documents.

Yankovic and his band toured as the opening act for The Monkees in mid 1987 for their second reunion tour of North America. Yankovic claims to have enjoyed touring with The Monkees, despite the fact "the promoter gypped us out of a bunch of money."

Yankovic also appeared on the Wendy Carlos recording of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" as the narrator in 1988. The album also included a sequel of Camille Saint-Saëns's composition The Carnival of the Animals entitled the "Carnival of the Animals Part II", with Yankovic providing humorous poems for each of the featured creatures in the style of Ogden Nash, who had written humorous poems for the original. Rubén Valtierra joined the band on keyboards in 1991, allowing Yankovic to concentrate more on singing and increasing his use of the stage space during concerts.

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. 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".

New look, personal life, and career to present

On January 24, 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery to correct his extreme myopia. In the same period, he shaved off his moustache and grew out his hair, thus radically changing his trademark look. (He had previously shaved his mustache in 1983 for the video of Ricky in order to resemble Desi Arnaz more closely, and in 1996 for his "Amish Paradise" video.) Yankovic reasoned, "If Madonna's allowed to reinvent herself every 15 minutes, I figure I should be good for a change at least once every twenty years." He parodied the reaction to this "new look" in a commercial for his nonexistent 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."

Yankovic married Suzanne Krajewski on February 10, 2001. Their daughter, Nina, was born February 11, 2003. They also have a pet cockatiel named Bo Veaner. They used to have a pet poodle, Bela (pictured atop Yankovic's head on the cover of his album, Poodle Hat). Despite songs such as "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi", his frequent use of "Oy vey" and other Yiddish phrases, Yankovic is not of Jewish ancestry, and identifies himself as a Christian.

Yankovic changed his diet to become a vegan in 1992, after a fan of his gave him the book Diet for a New America and he felt "it made a very compelling argument for a strict vegetarian diet." When asked how he can "rationalize" performing at events such as the Great American Rib Cook-Off when he is a vegetarian, he replied "The same way I can rationalize playing at a college even though I’m not a student anymore."

On April 9, 2004, Yankovic's parents, Nick, 86, and Mary, 81, were found dead in their Fallbrook, California, home, apparently the victims of accidental 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 Appleton, Wisconsin, 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."

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. While most novelty artists are one-hit wonders, Yankovic's continued success (including the top 10 single "White & Nerdy" and album Straight Outta Lynwood in 2006) has enabled him to escape the stigma often associated with novelty music.

I EDIT WIKIPEDIA!!!!!

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", among 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 are not songs, but spoken skits, such as "Sesame Street on crack", which is also widely misattributed to Adam Sandler.

Yankovic cites these misattributions as "his only real beef with peer-to-peer file sharing 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 frequently misattributed to Yankovic can be found at The Not Al Page 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 and as such the Fund is accepting donations again. Yankovic's application was resubmitted for consideration in 2007, but he was not included among 2008's inductees.

Discography

Awards and nominations

Videography

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

Awards and nominations

Cameos and special appearances in film

• Tapeheads - 1988
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! - 1988
• Parker Lewis Can't Lose - 1991
• The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear - 1991
• Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult - 1994
• Spy Hard - 1996
• Safety Patrol - 1997
• Nothing Sacred - 1998
• Desperation Boulevard - 2002
• Haunted Lighthouse - 2003

References

1. Harrington, Richard. "Weird Al's Imitation: A Funky Form of Flattery". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
2. "Weird Al Yankovic's latest send-ups on The Catch-up". Retrieved 2007-03-14.
3. ""Weird Al" Yankovic: Catalog". Retrieved 2006-10-28.
4. ""Weird Al" Yankovic: Biographies". Retrieved 2006-10-28.
5. http://www.weirdal.com/livepage.htm
6. ^ ""Weird Al" Yankovic: Frequently Asked Questions". Retrieved 2006-10-28.
7. ^ Demento, Dr. (September 27, 1994). Liner notes, Permanent Record. Scotti Bros. ISBN B00000I029. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) Cite error: The named reference "booklet" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
8. "Autopsy confirms Yankovic parents died from carbon monoxide poisoning". San Diego Union Tribune. April 12, 2004. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. ""Weird Al" Yankovic on MySpace". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
10. ""Weird Al" Yankovic interview by Spoonman on Triple M Australia". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
11. "Midnight Star "Ask Al" Q&As for April, 1994". Retrieved 2007-04-02.
12. ""Weird Al" Yankovic: Rare Items: UNLABELED TAPE". Retrieved 2006-08-24.
13. "The clown prince of song parodies.", The Star-Ledger, August 10, 2007. p14. " A native of Lynwood (a Los Angeles suburb), Yankovic entered show business modestly, with unsolicited submissions to Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show and coffeehouse appearances. "It was sort of like amateur music night, and a lot of people were like wannabe Dan Fogelbergs," he says. "They'd get up on stage with their acoustic guitar and do these lovely ballads. And I would get up with my accordion and play the theme from '2001.' And people were kind of shocked that I would be disrupting their mellow Thursday night folk fest."
14. ^ McNamara, Michael (Director) (1999). Behind the Music: "Weird Al" Yankovic (TV series). VH1. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
15. ""Weird Al" Yankovic: Live Performances". Retrieved 2006-11-10.
16. ""Ask Al" Q&As for November, 1998". Retrieved 2007-06-05.
17. "LASIK story and pictures".
18. "Archive.org for www.weirdal.com/bio.htm for February 8, 2001". Retrieved 2006-10-29.
19. ""Weird Al" Yankovic MTV Unplugged Promo". Retrieved 2006-10-28.
20. "Midnight Star "Ask Al" Q&As for July, 1995". Retrieved 2007-04-04.
21. "Midnight Star "Ask Al" Q&As for January, 1995". Retrieved 2007-04-04.
22. ""Ask Al" Q&As for May, 2000". Retrieved 2007-06-23.
23. "Fallbrook couple found dead". Retrieved 2007-02-16.
24. "A Message From Al". Retrieved 2006-08-24.
25. "Weird Al's shtick still draws a crowd". Retrieved 2006-10-16.
26. "Revenge of the nerd: 'Weird Al' gets all white and nerdy for summer tour". Retrieved 2007-08-13.
27. "Tweak: Phone Tag - Weird Al Yankovic". Retrieved 2006-10-16.
28. ""Ask Al" Q&As for October 2, 2005". Retrieved 2006-08-24.
29. ^ "The Not Al Page: The most popular songs he didn't even write (or perform)!". Retrieved 2006-08-24.
30. ""Don't not download this song"". Retrieved 2006-09-23.
31. "Recording Dates Page". Retrieved 2006-12-01.
32. ^ "The Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Campaign for "Weird Al" Yankovic". Retrieved 2007-03-15.
33. "The Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Campaign for "Weird Al" Yankovic". Retrieved 2006-10-29.
34. Gina Serpe. "Damon, Diddy, Ponch Got Star Power". E! Online News. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
35. "New Stars to Grace Hollywood Walk of Fame". Retrieved 2007-07-02.
36. Grammy Award Winners. Retrieved 1 December 2006.
37. ^ ""Weird Al" Yankovic: Awards". Retrieved 2006-12-14.
38. ^ "RIAA Searchable Database". Retrieved 2007-08-13.
39. Grammy Award Winners. Retrieved 1 December 2006.

External links

• Official website
• Template:MySpace-music
• Official Youtube profile
• "Weird Al" Yankovic at IMDb
• "Weird Al" Yankovic discography at MusicBrainz
• Weird Al Songs and Lyrics
• Weird Al Wiki

Template:Persondata

• 1959 births
• American Christians
• American accordionists
• American actor-singers
• American comedy musicians
• American male singers
• American novelty song performers
• American satirists
• American singer-songwriters
• American vegetarians
• American voice actors
• California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo alumni
• Falsettos
• Grammy Award winners
• Parodists
• Parody musicians
• People from California
• Polka musicians
• Serbian-Americans
• Living people