Entertainment
Toilet mix tapes and messing with Madonna… the true story behind ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic-Kimberley Bond-Entertainment – Metro
Weird Al dissected popular culture and gave us a glimpse into what we were really thinking but couldn’t say out loud
He’s sold 12 million albums, got celebrity fans as far-reaching as James Blunt and Lady Gaga, and is the third person in history (after Michael Jackson and Madonna, no less) to have a Top 40 hit in every decade since the 80s… But, let’s be honest, how many of those under 30 can actually name a song by Weird Al?
After bursting onto the pop scene 40 years ago, the success of Alfred Matthew Yankovic remains one of music’s biggest enigmas.
While his oeuvre of work may contain mostly pastiches and parodies designed to elicit giggles, it’s ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic who’s having the last laugh with his unique stylings being celebrated in the star’s upcoming biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
The movie, which stars Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role, sets out to satirise other recent, similar films such as Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody. Just as with the star’s songs, it takes some of the truer aspects of the 63-year-old’s life, then twists them to the extreme, giving its viewers a nudge in the ribs, as we’re very much included in the joke.
‘[Biopics] are not documentaries, they’re meant to be for entertainment purposes,’ explained Al, who co-wrote the screenplay and served as producer, upon the release of Weird. ‘But as a fan, I’m always upset when I watch a biopic of Queen or Elton John and I see that [things] didn’t happen that way. Or the chronology is all twisted around.
‘I thought, well, if I ever do a biopic I’m just going to have to throw facts out the window! I’m just gonna have to make it up from scratch.’
So what is the real story behind the comedy mind of hits such as: Eat It, My Bologna and White and Nerdy? Well, much like Al itself, the truth is stranger – or perhaps, ‘weirder’ – than fiction.
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has mocked American culture for nearly five decades (Picture: Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty Images)
Born in California in 1959 of Yugoslavian descent, Alfred Matthew Yankovic found himself attracted to music aged just seven years old, after his parents signed him up for accordion lessons.
With his parents being quite strict, Al often stayed home, practising his musical craft in his bedroom, learning hit tracks, such as Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
In his youth, he was also an avid listener of the Dr Demento comedy radio show, which specialised in novelty and comedy pop songs, and as a teen he became influenced by performers such as ‘Spike Jones, Stan Freberg and Frank Zappa… as well the other wonderfully sick and twisted artists’ that regularly had guest spots on the show.
At over six feet tall by the age of 16, brandishing tight corkscrew curls and a penchant for floral shirts, A; was considered an eccentric outsider, dubbed ‘Weird Al’ by his classmates.
Not deterred by his nickname, he adopted his new moniker when he became a DJ at his college radio station – and ‘Weird Al’ as we now know him was born.
Still a huge fan of Dr Demento, Al was keen to get his parody songs airtime, and so using the cheapest equipment he could afford as a hand-to-mouth student, he would record demos and send them into the radio station.
While Dr Demento was impressed with Al’s unique wit, playing his joke track ‘Belverdere Cruisin’ on his show, he was less encouraging about the physical quality of the tapes. A note he received from the DJ read: ‘Only 39-cent people use 39-cent cassette tapes.’
It was a burn that pushed Al to cut back on food to afford better quality equipment, while working part-time in a mail room and recording his demos in the men’s bathroom for better acoustics.
Al and his accordion fiercely ripped some of America’s biggest stars and performers (Picture: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)
Al finally got his big break when he recorded ‘My Bologna’ – a mickey-taking parody riffing on The Knack’s massive hit, My Sharona. The track received airplay not just by Dr Demento but by DJ’s across America – and The Knack enjoyed the parody so much it made the B-side to another single.
The song saw Al invited as regular a radio show guest, where he released a second parody, ‘Another One Rides The Bus’.
The track saw Al rocketed into the mainstream, and his career went from strength to strength, with parodies such as ‘I Love Rocky Road’ (a take on The Arrows’ ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’) ‘Ricky’ (a joke version of Tony Basil’s ‘Mickey’) and Eat It (one of Al’s best-loved parodies, a version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’) establishing him as a celebrated performer.
The star’s zany music videos also made him a darling of the relatively new MTV. Applying his typical style of humour for visual gags, dressing himself up as the artists he were pastiching, Al set himself apart from other performers by delivering a roster of memorable music videos just as the artform was beginning to flourish.
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic used his music videos to establish himself as a unique performer – as well as add visual humour to his lyrics (Picture: Orion/Getty Images)
Although Weird Al and his band were essentially bona fide celebrities at this point, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, he had no interest in the trappings many rockstars fall victim to.
While the big screen tale of his life sees Daniel Radcliffe’s Al become hooked on drugs and alcohol (even having to be revived in hospital at one point), the real Weird Al eschews these vices. He abides by fairly strict Christian beliefs, being completely teetotal and never tried drugs or even swearing. Unlike his stage persona, the star is thought to be incredibly introverted, even described as ‘shy’ in real life.
Despite keeping a low profile outside his music, it hasn’t hampered his enduring popularity, which pop culture expert Nick Ede attributes to the simplicity of his comedy that can appeal to a wide audience.
‘The lyrics of Weird Al’s songs embody the American psyche and beyond,’ he tells Metro.co.uk. ‘He is a clever lyricist and he has a way of being able to create humour that isn’t too obscure or pompous.’
However, some of Weird Al’s older songs, recorded in the 70s and 80s, may not be so warmly received today. His track ‘Fat’, released in 1988, was a parody of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’, has since been criticised as ‘fatphobic’ by modern audience, containing problematic lyrics such as: ‘The pavement cracks when I fall down/I’ve got more chins than Chinatown’.
Songs like ‘Fat’, Weird Al’s take on Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ would not be such big hits today due to their problematic nature (Picture: Ron Eisenberg/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
‘Comedy has always played a fine line between parody, controversy and opinion,’ Nick explains. ‘I think now some of his songs just wouldn’t work in the context of how we look at body positivity and beyond, however, when put into context they have to be seen for what they were, which is comedy vignettes that worked for the time.
‘It’s in the same vein as some of Joan Rivers’s humour – it may not be so palatable now, but in their context, it works for the time.’
Even if the lyrics Al comes up with completely rip the mickey behind the serious meaning of the original song, his parodies are so well loved, most artists agree to having their song spoofed.
Nirvana were said to be ecstatic about ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ being parodied as ‘Smells Like Nirvana’, while it was Madonna who suggested Al did the ‘Like a Surgeon’ spoof.
However, don’t believe everything you see on the big screen about his relationship with the superstar.
In the movie, Madonna, played by Evan Rachel Wood, seduces Al with her hard-partying lifestyle. But while the love affair that ensues didn’t actually happen in real life, Al has teased there was ‘a nugget of truth’ to what plays out in his biopic.
Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain said they knew they had ‘made it’ when Weird Al parodied ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ (Picture: Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
Weird Al Yankovic spoofed Coolio in ‘Amish Paradise’ (Picture: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)
In 1999, Al had an image change, having had laser eye surgery and ditching his trademark aviator glasses.
He also shaved off his moustache and grew his corkscrew curls long, telling audiences: ‘If Madonna’s allowed to reinvent herself every 15 minutes, I figure I should be good for a change at least once every 20 years’.
The way he releases music has also changed: with the advent of streaming and YouTube, Al stopped releasing traditional albums in 2014, now pumping songs into the world at will.
In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, he explained: ‘I can’t tell you when any material is coming out. Inspiration could strike tomorrow and I might have something out next month. There’s no plan. It’s just going to be whenever it winds up being.’
But at their very core, Al’s parody songs have remained the same, and have still performed well in the charts almost five decades after he first started out with his accordion. More recent hits include ‘Word Crimes’ (a take on Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’), ‘White and Nerdy’ (Chamillionaire’s ‘Ridin Dirty’) and ‘Perform This Way’ (Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ – with Al giving all profits from the song to Human Rights Campaign).
Daniel Radcliffe is now playing Al in ‘Weird’, a spoof on Al’s life (Picture: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Daniel Radcliffe was always the first choice for the role (Picture: Roku)
Having been granted a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018, it’s only fitting that now is the time that Al’s story is ‘explored’ in Weird.
Radcliffe may be an unusual choice to play our p***-taking protagonist – at 5 ft 5, he’s significantly shorter than Al, but as a long-time fan of the star’s work (plus his varied acting career after the Harry Potter franchise) he was always one of the frontrunners for the job.
‘We always kept focusing on Dan’s name because we were both fans of all of Dan’s work, but we knew that he could pull off the dramatic moments and also the comedic moments,’ Al explained. ‘Both are very important for this movie because it’s a very specific tone you’re going for. It’s a comedy, obviously, but it needs to be really grounded and needs to be played like some big Oscar-worthy biopic. We literally couldn’t think of anybody in the world that could play the part better than him.’
Filming lasted just 18 days, with Radcliffe deeply committing to the role – even learning the accordion from scratch to effectively channel Weird Al’s energy.
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With Weird about to be unleashed, Al continues to work hard to engage with audiences old and new all over the world, through tours, videos and the likelihood of new music releases.
And it’s paying off – even his older videos, such as Amish Paradise, have racked up over 100 million views on YouTube and continue to entice new generations of fans.
Having spent five decades parodying some of the world’s biggest artists, it’s clear Weird Al is showing any signs of slowing down – or even becoming more normal.
Weird is available from Friday 4th November on Roku.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Kimberley.Bond@metro.co.uk
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