"Weird Al" Yankovic

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is a Grammy award winning American musician, satirist, parodist, accordionist, and television producer.

Biography

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic, the son of Nick and Mary Yankovic, first started playing the accordion one day before his seventh birthday, mastering the instrument by age ten.

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After hearing Dr. Demento's radio show (a comedy radio program featuring humorous music), Al sent the Doctor a tape of a song entitled "Belvedere Cruising" in 1976. Al was a senior at Lynwood High School in Lynwood, California at the time, but that tape was the start of his eventual career.

Related Topics:
Dr. Demento - Radio - Comedy - 1976 - Senior - Lynwood High School - Lynwood - California

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Three years later, Al was an architecture student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a disc jockey at the university's radio station (KCPR). Since "My Sharona" by The Knack was on the charts and The Knack was going to play at Cal Poly, Al took his accordion into the bathroom across from the listening booth and recorded a parody entitled "My Bologna", with a B-side called "School Cafeteria". The Knack thought it was funny, and arranged for the song to be released on their label, Capitol Records, which gave Al a six-month contract. Dr. Demento's listeners put this track atop his "Funny Five" list.

Related Topics:
Architecture - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo - Disc jockey - The Knack - Capitol Records

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In 1980, Al was working the mail room at Westwood One, Dr. Demento's radio network at the time, when he developed another parody 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, Al ran into Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz who told Al he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Al's accordion case to keep a good steady beat to the song. "Another One Rides The Bus" became so popular that it got Al his first television appearance, The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. On the show, Al played his accordion and again Jon banged on his accordion case. The rare 1981 Placebo EP release of this song has as its B-side the track "Happy Birthday", an unusually (for Al) dark song about the world's problems and imminent destruction ("There's garbage in the water, there's poison in the sky, I guess it won't be long before we're all gonna die"), with the sarcastic suggestion that denial is the natural solution ("So if you think it's scary, if it's more than you can take, just blow out the candles, and have a piece of cake!").

Related Topics:
1980 - Westwood One - Queen - Another One Bites The Dust - Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz - The Tomorrow Show - Tom Snyder - 1981

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1981 brought Al on tour for the first time as part of Dr. Demento's act. His performances were particularly interesting as few, if any, people at the time were doing parodies of rock and roll songs on accordion. His stage act caught the eye of manager Jay Levey, who loved it and became Al's manager. Jay insisted that the act would sound better if Al had a full band, so he held auditions. Steve Jay became Al's bass player, and Jim West the lead guitarist. With "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, the band was complete.

Related Topics:
1981 - Jay Levey - Band - Steve Jay - Bass - Guitar - Drums

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The Dr. Demento Society, which issues yearly Christmas re-releases of material from Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes, often includes among these unreleased tracks from Mr. Yankovic's vaults, such as "Pacman", "It's Still Billy Joel To Me", or the demos for "I Love Rocky Road". The live version of "School Cafeteria" is also to be found on Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes.

Related Topics:
Dr. Demento Society - Christmas

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In 1985, Al co-wrote and starred in a mockumentary of his own life entitled The Compleat Al that intertwined fact and fiction of his life up to that point. The movie was co-directed by Jay Levey, who would direct UHF (see below) four years later.

Related Topics:
1985 - Mockumentary - The Compleat Al - Jay Levey - UHF

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Al claims to have been inspired by Allan Sherman, whose portrait in miniature (with name) can be found by the observant on the cover of Al's first album.

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In January 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery and shaved off his mustache, radically changing his trademark look.

Related Topics:
1998 - LASIK - Mustache

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Al married Suzanne Krajewski on February 10, 2001. Their daughter, Nina, was born February 11, 2003.

Related Topics:
February 10 - 2001 - February 11 - 2003

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On April 9, 2004, Al's parents, Nick Louis Yankovic, 86, and Mary, 81, were found dead in their Fallbrook, California home, apparently the victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. The night after their bodies were found, Al went on with his concert in Mankato, Minnesota, saying that since his music had helped many of his fans through tough times, maybe it would work for him as well.

Related Topics:
April 9 - 2004 - Fallbrook, California - Carbon monoxide poisoning - Mankato, Minnesota

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