Embracing The Weird
There has never been a superstar quite like “Weird Al” Yankovic, and there never will be one again. Weird Al has made millions off of embracing the things that made him just that: Weird. Rather than fearing the disapproval of others, Al put his quirks front and center for the world to see—and they love him for it.
Whether you’ve been a lifelong fan or have only recently discovered the beauty that is Weird Al, dive into the story of a one-of-a-kind man and let it inspire you to live your best weird life too.
1. His Parents Supported Him
Named Alfred Matthew Yankovic at birth, Weird Al grew up near Lynwood, California with his parents Mary and Nick Yankovic. Both of his parents were supportive of their young son. His father, in particular, encouraged Al to find what made him happy. However, they also kept him sheltered from the world.
2. His Parents Also Held Him Back
Weird Al did not spend much time with other children growing up. His parents kept him sheltered inside of their home. They did not allow him to have sleepovers or visit the houses of friends; they only allowed him to ride his bike the short distance to his aunt’s house. This unique upbringing may have held him back in some ways. However, it also gave him what he needed for success.
3. He Had Free Time
The day before Al’s seventh birthday, he went to his first accordion lesson. His parents purchased the instrument from a traveling salesman who’d given his parents two choices: accordion or guitar. The Yankovics chose the accordion to honor great polka musician Frankie Yankovic (no relation).
Thanks to Al’s sheltered childhood, he had plenty of time on his hands to perfect his art during his teen years. However, he almost didn’t end up in music at all.
4. He’s A Genius
One unsurprising fact about Weird Al is that he’s a bit of a genius. Not only did Al start Kindergarten a year early, but he skipped second grade. He graduated high school at the age of 16 as class valedictorian. Following that, he went to California Polytechnic State University to study architecture. Who knows who Weird Al may have become if he hadn’t taken a chance on his unique passion instead?
5. He Found His Niche
Weird Al is a household name these days. However, in the 1970s when Al was about to graduate high school and was looking for his path in the world, he found it in an unlikely place. Barry Hansen, otherwise known as Dr Demento, ran “The Dr Demento Show”—pretty much the only place that played novelty and comedy records.
At the age of 16, Al sent a parody song to Demento that Demento couldn’t resist.
Martha Hartnett, Los Angeles Times, Wikimedia Commons
6. He Took A Chance Young
Weird Al, still a senior in high school, sent a song to Dr Demento in which Al played his accordion while singing about how great his family’s Plymouth Belvedere was, badmouthing all other family cars in the process. Dr Demento found the song “too weird to resist”. He played it—and the rest became history.
7. He Grew His Fanbase
After his initial “hit,” Weird Al continued to send songs to Dr Demento. Long before the rest of the world knew of Al, a loyal fanbase grew from the “Dr Demento Show”. Al is the show’s most requested artist. While he had a loyal fanbase on the air, Al didn’t always get along with people at school.
“Weird Al” is a unique stage name. It’s one that he gained from his peers and they didn’t mean it as a compliment.
8. He Embraced The Weird
Weird Al revealed that his stage name came from the other students during his freshman year at college. He knew they did not intend it as a compliment when they’d see him in the halls and go “Oh yeah, there goes ‘Weird Al”’. However, Al decided to take the power away from them. Instead, he embraced the name, and took the world by storm. Al knew early on that he had something going on with his music.
Joyce Martinez, Wikimedia Commons
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9. He Took A Risk
Weird Al took a huge risk early on in his career. He and a buddy from college went to an open mic at Cal Poly in 1977. Rather than sticking to classics, Al unleashed the full volume of his ‘weirdness’ upon the crowd—including an accordion rendition of “Wipeout” and the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. He should’ve been booed off the stage. Instead, the crowd was ecstatic. They ate it up.
Al realized for the first time that he had something going on. However, he didn’t have the resources to back up his songs.
10. He Broke Out
Around the same time that Al performed at the open mic, his music soared to the top of the charts—well, at least it did on “The Dr Demento Show”. Al’s first breakout song parodied “My Sharona,” twisting the name into “My Bologna”. However, he didn’t have access to a sound booth. Instead, he borrowed a mic from his college job as a disc jockey and recorded the song in the bathroom.
Despite the unconventional recording tactics, “My Bologna” launched Al’s career in a surprising way.
11. He Made Connections
Weird Al found his way backstage at a show for The Knacks, the band behind “My Sharona”. There, he bumped into Doug Fieger, lead singer and guitarist for the band. To Al’s surprise, Fieger knew who he was. Moreover, Fieger loved “My Bologna”. He loved it so much that he convinced Capitol Records to distribute the song, earning Al, who was only 20 at the time, $500 and a six-month contract.
Sadly, the contract part didn’t work out. Despite this experience, not all of Al’s early songs were well received.
Jeff Share, Los Angeles Times, Wikimedia Commons
12. He Got Mean
In 1980, Billy Joel’s hit “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” ruled the airwaves. This inspired Al to write the parody “It’s Still Billy Joel to Me”. Unlike his later songs, this song took a direct dig at Billy Joel, implying that his music wasn’t that good at all. Al immediately sensed that Joel didn’t like the song. More than that, he sensed the singer was insulted by it.
And Weird Al’s reaction was remarkable. He realized he didn’t like the way that this made him feel. So, Al decided at that point that he didn’t “want to be mean to people” and that he “could be funny without tearing people down”. This set the tone for the rest of his career.
13. He Attracted Others
Weird Al had a way of attracting people to him. His band, which he’s been with for his entire career, came together nearly by accident. He first attracted his drummer, Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz, during the recording of “Another One Rides the Bust,” a parody of Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust”. Al attracted Schwartz’s attention while practicing outside. Schwartz offered to bang on Al’s accordion case to provide a beat.
A match made in heaven, the pair never separated, adding a guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist a few years later. They were ready for the stage… though the stage may not have been ready for them.
14. He Sucked
The magic that Weird Al found at that 1977 open mic did not reappear when he took to the stage in 1981. Al had just released his debut album and his record company didn’t know how to market him. They sent him and his band to open for a new wave band… and it couldn’t have gone worse. The crowd threw “anything they could possibly find” at the band.
Afterward, a 12-year-old boy yelled “YOU SUCK” at Al as he tried to get into his car. His career seemed like was over before it even started—that’s when a big name changed everything.
15. He Made A Good Partnership
Al’s second album, “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D, was released in 1984. It featured Al’s biggest name yet: Michael Jackson. “Eat It” was the first single that Al released from this album, a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”. It reached Number 12 on the charts. After that, when asked if he was “Weird Al,” people started to yell much kinder things than “You Suck”.
However, things weren’t smooth sailing merely because of one success.
Weird Al Yankovic - Eat It (Official 4K Video), alyankovic
16. He Asked For Permission
Weird Al made a point to always get permission from artists before parodying their songs, despite the fact that he never needed to, as parody falls under “fair use”. While Michael Jackson’s support for both “Eat It” and later his parody of “Bad” went a long way to help launch Al’s career—something he always acknowledges—Jackson didn’t always approve of Al’s ideas.
Matthew Rolston; Distributed by Epic Records, Wikimedia Commons
17. He Didn’t Always Hear Yes
Weird Al wanted to parody “Black or White” into “Snack All Night”. However, Jackson didn’t approve it. He felt uncomfortable undermining the message of “Black or White” in such a trivial manner. Al, however, thanks Jackson for this too—as it gave him the push he needed to stop falling back on the safe formula of parodying Jackson’s songs. Still, Jackson had company in telling Al “no”.
Michael Jackson - Black or White [RESTORED/REMASTERED] HD, Rafhy
18. He Challenged People’s Values
Weird Al wanted to parody Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” to “Chicken Pot Pie”. McCartney refused—though not for the reason that you think. McCartney had no problem with Al parodying him…but he’s a vegetarian. He didn’t want his song associated with promoting eating meat. McCartney may not have taken his music so seriously that he couldn’t let someone parody him, but one big-name artist sure did.
19. He Had An Enemy
Weird Al attempted to get Prince’s approval to parody several of his songs throughout the 80s. He had plans for songs like “Let’s Go Crazy”, “When Doves Cry”, and “Kiss”. Unfortunately, no matter how many times Al asked, Prince always refused to grant permission to use the songs. It seemed that he didn’t care for Al’s (or likely anyone else’s) plans to spoof him. Yet, some artists practically begged Al to parody their music.
20. He Took A Suggestion
As a rule, Weird Al never responds to requests or suggestions to parody various songs. He gets far too many to even consider them all, and his process is far too personal for a suggestion to work—most of the time. There is one exception to this rule. In 1985, Madonna told a friend “I wonder when ‘Weird Al’ is gonna do ‘Like a Surgeon’”. Through a game of “somebody-who-knows-somebody,” this comment got back to Al and he thought that it was a pretty good idea.
“Like a Surgeon” was released at the start of Al’s rise in the 80s.
Weird Al Yankovic - Like a Surgeon (HD Version), alyankovic
21. His Popularity Rose
Once Weird Al found his audience, his popularity only continued to rise. By the mid-1980s, nothing could contain his rise to stardom. He won his first Grammy for Best Comedy Recording for “Eat It” in 1985. A year earlier, “Al TV” aired for the first time on MTV—an April Fools’ joke that played on the idea that Weird Al “hijacked” MTV’s broadcast to play his videos and conduct mock interviews. “Al TV” ran on and off until 2006.
The demand for his music became so great that it roped him into doing things he didn’t really want to do.
22. He Compromised
Thanks to his growing popularity, his record company wanted Weird Al to record a Christmas album. Al didn’t love the idea—it didn’t suit his style or what people knew him for. In the end, he and the label reached a compromise: he wrote a single Christmas song that they could release.
However, things didn’t go quite how the record company expected.
23. His Label Didn’t Like It
Weird Al’s attempt at a Christmas tune resulted in the song “Christmas at Ground Zero”, a carol inspired by the height of the Cold War. It told the story of celebrating the holidays during and in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust—not quite the jolly song the record company expected. Not only did some radio stations ban the record, but his record company wouldn’t pay for a music video—something Al didn’t see as a problem.
Weird Al Yankovic - Christmas At Ground Zero (Official Video), alyankovic
24. He Took Charge
If the record label wouldn’t pay for a video, Weird Al would take the task on himself. “Christmas at Ground Zero” became the first video that Al directed. From there, he began directing not just his music video, but those by other artists as well. To date, Al’s directed videos for artists like Jeff Foxworthy, John Spencer Blues Explosion, and the Black Crowes.
Directing, however, didn’t stop him from creating new music. By the mid-90s, the time came for another Weird Al album—if Al could get the songs for it.
Weird Al Yankovic - Christmas At Ground Zero (Official Video), alyankovic
25. He Varied His Style
While best known for parodies, they aren’t the only kind of music that Weird Al creates. One of his other favorite forms of expression is creating polka medleys of popular songs. In 1996, he created “The Alternative Polka” which featured a mash-up of popular alternative rock songs—but one major hit from that era was conspicuously missing.
Weird Al Yankovic - Polka Face (Official 4K Video), alyankovic
26. He Had To Adapt
Initially, “The Alternative Polka” was supposed to include Weezer’s breakout hit “Buddy Holly”. Weird Al had the writer Rivers Cuomo’s permission. However, at the last minute, Cuomo changed his mind. When we say last minute, we mean last minute. Not only had Al already recorded the song, but the “special thanks” for the CD and cassette were printed too. That’s when Cuomo suddenly backed out.
This forced Al and his team to physically cut the song out of the already recorded medley. Despite these setbacks, not all musical artists have issues with Al’s recordings.
David Lee from Redmond, WA, USA, Wikimedia Commons
27. He Has Fans In The Industry
In fact, many artists enjoy Weird Al’s parodies. 1996’s Bad Hair Day parodied The Presidents of the United States of America’s song “Lump”. Al turned it into a Forest Gump-themed parody called “Gump”. When performing the song live, The Presidents often sing the last line of Al’s “Gump” instead of their original final line live. They aren’t the only ones.
Weird Al Yankovic - Gump (HD Version), alyankovic
28. He Shared Spoilers
In the 90s, Weird Al also parodied Don McLean’s “American Pie”. He used the structure to turn it into a song that summarizes the entirety of The Phantom Menace. But here’s the thing: Al’s song “The Saga Begins” came out before The Phantom Menace. Al wrote the entire thing off of spoilers about the movie from the internet, and it turned out to be pretty accurate.
McLean says he has to stop himself from singing “The Saga Begins” lyrics when he’s performing “American Pie,” because he loved the song so much. However, for every fan, there’s someone who isn’t willing to play along.
Weird Al Yankovic - The Saga Begins (HD Version), alyankovic
29. He Could Ruin An Image
Weird Al wanted the first single from his album Poodle Hat to be “Couch Potato,” a parody of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. Eminem permitted Al to parody the song—however, he didn’t want Al to make a video for it or release a single. He felt that if Al did that people would stop taking Eminem seriously as a hip-hop artist.
Al respected his wishes. But ultimately, it was the type of curse that just seemed to repeat itself.
Mika-photography, Wikimedia Commons
30. He Started Again
By 2006, after facing a personal tragedy—more on that later—Weird Al felt ready to release another album. However, this came with the same host of problems that he’d suffered every other time he’d wanted to parody a song. A parody of Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” (“You Had a Bad Date”) was among the songs that Al wanted to include on his 2006 album.
However, Daniel Powter turned down the request—only to change his mind later.
31. He Didn’t Hold Back
Weird Al told the Toronto Sun that Powter reached out to him the day before they were set to go into the studio to begin recording songs for the album, saying that he’d changed his mind and he did want “Bad Date” included. Unfortunately, for Powter, Al essentially told him that his change of heart came too late. In Al’s words, “the train had left the station”. Another artist joined Powter in missing out on the opportunity Al provided.
32. He Got Almost Got Permission
Another song that Weird Al intended to include on Straight Outta Lynwood was “You’re Pitiful”, a parody of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”. The story of this particular song is an interesting one. Blunt gave Al his permission to parody it. It was Blunt’s label, Atlantic Records, that shut down the discussion, refusing Al permission to use it.
As it turned out, the label didn’t ruin much at all.
WEIRD AL You're Pitiful 2007 LiVe, saskatchawan
33. He Stuck By His Values
Al’s loyalty has always been to the artists. While he didn’t release “You’re Pitiful” on his album as he intended, Al saw no reason not to distribute the song online. As he put it, the situation revolved around “a bunch of suits” going against the artist’s wishes. Therefore, Al saw no problem with sharing the song with his fans.
Besides, in refusing to let him release “You’re Pitiful” as a single, they launched Weird Al into even bigger stardom.
WEIRD AL You're Pitiful 2007 LiVe, saskatchawan
34. He Broke Out
Instead of releasing “You’re Pitiful” as he’d intended, Weird Al picked “White & Nerdy” a spoof of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’”, as the single he wanted to release. This elevated Al’s career to an even larger level than he’d seen it before. Al had many popular songs before, yet none of them ever cracked the top 10. The closest had been “Eat It” in the 80s.
“White & Nerdy” changed all of that, reaching the top 10 after its release. A few years later, Al faced a similar issue as he did with James Blunt.
Weird Al Yankovic - White & Nerdy (Official 4K Video), alyankovic
35. He Jumped Through Hoops
In 2011, Weird Al’s 14th album was in production and he had plans for Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”. He wanted to turn it into “Perform this Way”. However, her management team decided to make the entire process more difficult than it needed to be, forcing Al to jump through a series of hoops in order to get permission. Hoops that Al jumped through—only for them to drop the ball on their end.
36. He Ran Into Management
Gaga’s management team insisted that Lady Gaga needed to hear the song before she approved it. Simply reading the lyrics wouldn’t be enough. If they thought this would deter Weird Al, then they were mistaken. Al recorded the song and sent it over. In response, her management team told him she said no. Al now had a song on his hands he’d written and recorded, yet had nothing to do with it.
37. He Released It Anyway
After all that trouble, Weird Al decided to post his song “Perform This Way” on YouTube anyway. He announced that it wouldn’t be on his album, because Lady Gaga hadn’t approved it. This news shocked his fans—including Gaga herself. Her management team had turned the song down on her behalf without ever giving it to her!
38. He’s A Rite Of Passage
Lady Gaga’s management team couldn’t have been more wrong about the song. Lady Gaga loved it! Despite her management team’s efforts the song ended up on Al’s album anyway. Far from being offended, Gaga found the song “empowering” and considered being parodied by Al a “rite of passage”.
The misunderstanding harked back to one of the worst receptions of Weird Al’s career, which happened around the release of 1996’s Bad Hair Day.
39. He Desecrated The Song
One of Weird Al’s biggest hits was “Amish Paradise,” a parody of Coolio’s song “Gangsta’s Paradise”. As always, Al ensured that he had the permission from the artist before he went ahead with recording. Yet, after the Grammy Awards that year, Weird Al got a rude surprise.
Coolio spoke out, saying he didn’t “appreciate him desecrating the song like that” and that he’d told Al no, but Al made the song anyway.
Weird Al Yankovic - Amish Paradise (Parody of Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio) (HD Version)
40. He Had A Misunderstanding
Weird Al’s versions of events were a little more complicated. Two separate people from his label told Al that they’d talked to Coolio and he’d approved the song. Later, as they were in production, his record label told Al that it was Coolio’s management that had a problem with the song but not Coolio himself.
As Al always valued the artist over the “suits” and his label promised they’d work it out, he carried on with the song. Coolio didn’t see things that way. In the end, the matter worked out. Eventually, Coolio apologized to Weird Al about the entire situation, calling his previous comments “one of the dumbest things I did in my career”.
Weird Al Yankovic - Amish Paradise (Parody of Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio) (HD Version)
41. He’s Stopped Singing
To date, Weird Al has not released another album since 2014’s Mandatory Fun. Over the years since, he’s released some songs on movie soundtracks and others digitally. Weird Al has not come out and said that he’ll never write any more parody songs. However, he has said that he’s more interested in creating medleys and original songs at the moment.
He told Rolling Stone in 2020, “If a brilliant idea pops in my head, I guess I'd do it. But I'm leaving that to other people for the time being”. However, he still performs his old songs—with a few exceptions.
Weird Al Yankovic Talks Mandatory Fun Album, Diffuser
42. He’s Controversial
Weird Al has been creating music since the late 70s. When you’ve been creating for that long, things are bound to change. Time has a way of revealing what should never have been acceptable at all, and Weird Al’s songs are not immune to this fact. However, Al doesn’t try to fight back on this matter or hide what he’d once done. Instead, he embraces the tides of time and uses his past mistakes as an opportunity for learning.
Barry Brecheisen, Getty Images
43. He Thinks Of Others
Weird Al owes much of his career to Michael Jackson. This is a fact that he’s never backed away from. Until 2019, he continued to perform his parodies of Jackson’s songs as they remain some of his most popular. However, in the wake of the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, Al has chosen to retire those songs. He tries his best to keep others in mind when making his decisions.
White House Photo Office, Wikimedia Commons
44. He Values Safety
When asked about the matter, Weird Al told Billboard, “I don't know if that's going to be permanent or not, but we just felt that with what's happened recently with the HBO documentaries, we didn't want anybody to feel uncomfortable”. This isn’t the only change that Al has made to his material in order to keep people from feeling uncomfortable or alienated.
Super Festivals , Wikimedia Commons
45. He Uses Humor To Educate
Some of his earlier works also include a certain “M-word” to describe people with genetic disorders that have led them to have a short stature. While Al does not use the word in his songs anymore, he doesn’t simply remove the songs either. He took the opportunity to turn it into a learning situation for everyone and a humorous one at that.
John Manard for Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA, Wikimedia Commons
46. He Keeps An Open Mind
While Weird Al no longer uses the “M-word,” he still performs the songs that include that word. When he performed those songs on tour, he’d stop the music where the censored word appeared. Instead, he’d launch into a funny speech about how language changes, and why it should.
This is just yet another example of the beautiful quirks that make Weird Al, Weird Al.
47. He Faced Tragedy
Weird Al has brought immeasurable amounts of joy and laughter into the world, but in 2004, he faced a heartbreaking tragedy. While he was on tour, catastrophe struck far too close to home. On the evening of April 8, Al’s parents Nick and Mary started a fire in their fireplace, unaware that they hadn’t opened the flue. As a result, carbon monoxide filled their home, and they never noticed.
Someone found them together the next morning, and both had passed on.
48. His Fans Supported Him
As Weird Al was on tour at the time, he only found out the news after his wife called him. The news shocked fans who knew Nick and Mary from various film projects that Al had created over the years. However, their shock could never compare to the impact this had on Al himself. Still, Al found their support meaningful, issuing a thoughtful statement to them once he’d come to terms with his suffering.
While Al took time to recover from his loss, he did not let it hold him back—his parents would not have wanted that.
49. He Needs A Star
Despite his great popularity and undeniable musical talent, a few musical honors remain out of reach for Weird Al. Until 2018, Al did not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. However, after Dave Rossi, a Weird Al mega fan, created the Weird Al Star Fund to raise awareness and funds for the star, this changed. Yet, one honor remains out of reach.
Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA, Wikimedia Commons
50. He’s Okay With Weird
To date, Weird Al has not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, despite being eligible since 2005. Many online petitions exist and he remains around number 10 within the museum’s poll asking who they should induct next. Perhaps it is in his future. However, even if the honor does not come, it is undeniable that “Weird Al” has had a career that far surpasses the expectations of him all those years ago.
John Manard for Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA, Wikimedia Commons
51. He Has A Fulfilling Life Beyond The Parodies
Through professional difficulties and personal heartbreak, Weird Al has been lucky to have a strong support system behind the scenes—in the form of his wife Suzanne and their daughter. The couple was actually introduced by a friend, actor Bill Mumy. While Suzanne initially had her doubts about Al's public-facing persona, she realized she was being shallow—and that the man behind the parodies and polka ditties was a pretty good guy. And it's been happily ever after since then.
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