"WEIRD AL"

YANKOVIC

(1959-PRESENT)
PERSONAL LIVE FACTS

• Yankovic was born in Downey, California and raised in Lynwood,

California.
• He believes "the key to success" is "doing for a living whatever
makes you happy" and he often reminds this philosophy in his
songs
• His first parody song was recorded as "I Love Rocky Road“ a
parody of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" originally recorded by The Arrows
• His "classic" look before eye surgery was about glasses, mustache
and short, curly hair got very recognizable and he used it from
1979 to 1998
• Alfred Yankovic better known as Weird Al is an American
musical comedian and actor who is known for his humorous
songs that parody specific songs by contemporary music and of
popular culture
• Originally he used to make these parodies just because he felt
like to but once one author of the original song got offended by
Al and asked him to remove the song from the playlists or at
least paying him for copyrights, that was a only-one-time
situation cause all other singers actually like the fact Al parody
their songs
• Weird Al makes these parodies always with the consent of the
original singers even thought many of them have told him he
doesn’t need to ask them
PROFESSIONAL LIFE
• He considers that his first satirical song
was "Smells Like Nirvana", a parody of
Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
• Yankovic is well known for creating
parodies of contemporary radio hits
• Weird Al and his band strive to keep the
backing music in his parodies the same
as the original, transcribing the original
song by ear and re-recording the song for
the parody.
• In some cases, in requesting the original
band to allow for his parody, the band
will offer to help out with the recreation
MICHAEL JACKSON AND WEIRD AL
YANKOVIC
• Michael Jackson was a big fan of Yankovic, and
Yankovic claimed Jackson "had always been very
supportive" of his work
• Michael Jackson allowed him to parody his songs
"Beat It" and "Bad" and re-record them as "Eat It"
and "Fat", respectively
• When Michael Jackson granted Yankovic permission
to do "Fat", he allowed him to use the same set built
for his own "Badder" video from the Moonwalker
film