"Weird Al" Yankovic

He has also appeared in cartoons such as EEK! The Cat, The Simpsons, The Brak Show, Johnny Bravo and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, lending his voice to that of the Squid Hat, a parody of the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter series. Today's skateboarders not only differ greatly from those only 10 years ago in terms of tricks and consistency, but also style, which is a very important aspect in the way skateboarders are marketed by skateboarding companies. He currently plays a role in the "Haunted Lighthouse 4-D" Show at the Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park. Throwing themselves down large stairs and handrails only ups the ante in the modern skateboarding world. Al has also made a number of cameo film appearances, including all three Naked Gun films. All this from an object that was never designed to lock into grinds, flip in the air or do the tricks performed by today's skateboarders. He and his wife, Suzanne, recently had a daughter, Nina. Many styles today are a mimic of Tom Penny, who is a pioneer and in the early 1990s was the first skater to catch his flip tricks in mid air.

However, since the taping, Al has married. Recently his signature trick, the "900," was performed by an Italian skater named Georgio Zattoni and a Brazillian skater by the name of Sandro Dias. Also, Danny Way is considered by some to be the most innovative and daring skater, flying across the "DC Megaramps", and planning on jumping both the Great Wall of China and the Grand Canyon. (Also, the commercial failures of UHF and Polka Party). In the vert world, some are surpassing the skills of Tony Hawk. Al is so clean-cut that the producers couldn't find any of the typical angst-laced problems that make many rock stars' stories compelling (as Al noted in an interview with BTM), so their angle was on Al's life as a bachelor and (what they presumed was) his loneliness. Hawk has recently appeared in the MTV music video awards. VH1 produced a Behind the Music episode on Al. Examples include Tony Hawk (who has a series of video games in his name), Bob Burnquist, Rodney Mullen, Mike Vallely, Steve Caballero, Bam Margera and Josh Kalis (who has appeared in numerous television advertisements for DC Shoes).

The most popular part of AL-TV is Al manipulating interviews especially commissioned for AL-TV by the network for comic effect. Very skillful skateboarders often become famous through sponsorship and endorsements. For Poodle Hat, however, AL-TV appeared on VH1. The development of these complex tricks went from the street to the vertical tops of the half pipes (and other terrains). Al has hosted AL-TV on MTV many years, generally coinciding with the release of each new album. On the way the board can twist and flip, as can the rider, then to be united before hitting ground. Though the show appeared to be geared at children, the humor was really more for adult fans of Al. No longer is the trick to fly from one place to another.

Weird Al had a short-lived TV series called The Weird Al Show, which aired from September 1997 to January 1998 on CBS. The trick was reinvented by Rodney Mullen in the 80's, being transferred to the horizontal plane and used as a trick for freestyle skating (a style of skating popular in the 70's and 80's based on stationary maneuvers). Originals such as "Melanie" and "Albuquerque" are favorites of many of his fans. It involves using your feet to press against the board in various complicated combinations, depending on the trick to be performed. In addition to parodies such as these, most of Al's albums include a medley of popular songs played in polka style, as well as original songs with his own lyrics and words. To ollie is to fly off the ground (flat or a wall) with the board, but without holding onto the board and then landing back on the board. The following is a comprehensive list of his albums to 2003:. riding on only the front wheels (nose manual), spinning like an ice skater on the back wheels (a 360), high jumping over a bar, long jumping from one board to another (often over fearless teenagers lying on their backs), slalom, etc.) Around 1978 or so, street riding became transformed by the invention of the ollie or no hands aerial, the first modern skateboarding trick, by Alan "Ollie" Gelfand.

Since Al got a record contract in 1983, he has released many albums and parodies. Skating was originally basically two-dimensional tricks (e.g. It has been argued that this not only deprives the real artists involved of credit for their creations, but sometimes associates Al's name with types of music he would never produce and would not want to be known for. With the evolution of skateboard parks (or skateparks) and ramp riding, the skateboard began to change. One major victim of this seems to be Bob Rivers, but so many wrongly attributed tracks exist that several fans have set up websites attempting to list such tracks along with their real artists. see: Skateboarding trick for detailed description of trick skating maneuvers. The popularity of Al's music among users of Internet file sharing networks has led to many parody or comedy songs shared in this manner being identified as "Weird Al" tracks which in fact have no connection to him. The decks are still almost always maple plywood but interest in high technology materials has increased slightly after the cost of manufacturing them has dropped.

The article also referred to one real-life indication of Yankovic's status: Kurt Cobain, the lead singer for Nirvana stated that he felt that he had "made it" after Yankovic recorded "Smells Like Nirvana" (parodying Cobain's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"). In the early 1990's, the wheels were only marginally larger than the bearings they encased to make complicated flip tricks easier but that fad died in 1994 and wheels currently are around 50 to 58mm in diameter. Yankovic has been called a "cultural barometer" by The Onion's recurring fictitious dweeb character Larry Groznic (10 November 2004), who called Weird Al's music "the consummate pastiche of popular songwriting styles for our times". The wheel sizes are relatively small so that the boards will rotate more easily during flip tricks. Yankovic has received three Grammy Awards and became eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, although he says, "I think my chances of ever making it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame are about as good as Milli Vanilli's.". The wheels have an extremely hard durometer so that they will slide better during grind and slide tricks. He also directed the title sequence to Spy Hard, in which he sang the title song. The boards are all about 7.75" wide and 31.5" long.

Weird Al has directed many of his own music videos, as well as several by such artists as Hanson, The Black Crowes, Ben Folds, and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. The size and shape of the fourth and current generation of skateboards is dominated by one trick: the ollie. He also contributed the song "Dare to Be Stupid" to Transformers: The Movie. The third skateboarding generation was killed by the global economical recession in the early 90's. He has contributed songs to several films, including the original song "This Is The Life", featured on the soundtrack for Johnny Dangerously; the title track to his own movie, UHF; and a parody of the James Bond title sequences in "Spy Hard", the title track to a 1996 Leslie Nielsen movie directed by Rick Friedberg. Manufacturers preferred maple plywood over more exotic composite materials almost exclusively. Examples include "Alternative Polka", "Angry White Boy Polka" and "Polka Power.". With vert skating being dominant decks were initially very wide with large and wide wheels, though as time progressed and skateparks became fewer in number, street skating was gaining popularity, causing a change in both deck shape and wheel size.

In addition to his parodies, Al also includes a medley of various songs on most albums, each one reinterpreted as a polka, with the choruses of various songs juxtaposed for humourous effect. The invention of the ollie made it possible for skaters to perform huge airs off vertical ramps. Popeil"), Talking Heads ("Dog Eat Dog"), Nine Inch Nails ("Germs"), The Beach Boys ("Trigger Happy"), Oingo Boingo ("You Make Me"), The Police ("Velvet Elvis"), James Taylor ("The Good Old Days"), The Beastie Boys ("Twister"), and They Might Be Giants ("Everything You Know is Wrong"). The focus was initially on halfpipe and vert ramp skateboarding. Some of his original songs are pastiches or "style parodies," where he chooses a band's entire body of work to honor/parody rather than any single hit by that band; some bands so honored have been Devo ("Dare to Be Stupid"), The B-52's ("Mr. The third skateboard generation, from early eighties to early nineties, was started by skateboard companies that actively promoted their sport. Yankovic's humor lies more in creating unexpected incongruity between an artist's image and the topic of the song, contrasting the style of the song with its content, or in pointing out trends or works which have become pop culture cliches. In the end of 1980, skateboarding had died again.

Although many of his songs are parodies of contemporary radio hits, it is rare that the song's primary topic of lampooning is that artist. Many skateparks went out of business and the parks were torn down or bulldozed. Yankovic's work depends largely on the satirizing of popular culture, including television, movies, food, popular music, and sometimes issues in contemporary news. This caused liability concerns and increased insurance costs to skatepark owners. Though he is best known for his song parodies, Yankovic has recorded a greater number of original humorous songs, such as "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" and "Hardware Store". Skateboarders, most notably the Z-Boys, started to skate the vertical walls of swimming pools that were left empty in the 1976 California drought. With increased control skateboarders could skate faster and perform more dangerous tricks. 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. The skateboarders took advantage of the improved handling of their skateboards and started inventing new tricks.

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. Manufacturers started to experiment with more exotic composites, like fiberglass and aluminium but the common skateboards were made of maple plywood. In January 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery and shaved off his mustache, radically changing his trademark look. As the equipment became more maneuverable the decks started to get wider, reaching widths of 10 inches and over in the end, thus giving the skateboarder even more control. Since the mid-1990s, Al has performed annually at the Minnesota State Fair. With the growing interest companies started to invest more in product development and many companies started to manufacture trucks especially designed for skateboarding. 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. The improvement in traction and performance was so immense that popularity of skateboarding started to rise rapidly again.

The movie was co-directed by Jay Levey, who would direct UHF (see below) three years later. In 1970 Frank Nasworthy started to develop a skateboard wheel made of urethane. 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. Many skateboard manufacturers went out of business because of losing money on cancelled orders for the Christmas holiday season. The live version of "School Cafeteria" is also to be found on Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes. This development caused the first skateboarding fad to die completely in the fall of 1965. Yankovic's vaults, such as "Pacman", "It's Still Billy Joel To Me", or the demos for "I Love Rocky Road". This made skateboarding inherently a dangerous sport and after a few years many cities banned skateboarding because of liability concerns.

Demento Society, which issues yearly Christmas re-releases of material from Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes, often includes among these unreleased tracks from Mr. They had poor traction and would come to a dead stop when rolling over even small pebbles. The Dr. These boards used wheels made of clay. With Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums, the band was complete. The boards were from 6 to 7 inches wide. Steve Jay became Al's bass player, and Jim West the lead guitarist. At the time there was a rapidly growing interest in skateboarding (sometimes referred to as sidewalk surfing) and soon many other similar products emerged.

Jay insisted that the act would sound better if Al had a full band, so he held auditions. Before this skateboards were home made pieces of wooden planks with roller skates attached to the bottom. His stage act caught the eye of manager Jay Levey, who loved it and became Al's manager. The first commercial skateboard was the Roller Derby Skateboard that was introduced in 1959. His performances were particularly interesting as few, if any, people at the time were doing parodies of rock and roll songs on accordion. Surfers are adapting skateboarding tricks into surfing, and the result is evolution in both sports. Demento's act. While surfing influenced skateboarding in it's early days, now the reverse is also true.

1981 brought Al on tour for the first time as part of Dr. Skateboarding has its origins in surfing, and was originally called "sidewalk surfing". The rare 1981 Placebo EP release of this song has as its B-Side the subtle track "Happy Birthday.". Improvements in skateboarding equipment have spurred advancement in skateboarding techniques and new techniques have required new equipment. The resulting performance of "Another One Rides the Bus" was a parody of a Queen hit, "Another One Bites the Dust". The history of skateboarding goes hand in hand with the history of the skateboard. Jon Schwartz was also there, and he was a percussionist, so he was recruited to bang on Al's accordion case. Skateboarding has been thought of by many as part of the extreme sports family, which also includes (but not restricted to) snowboarding, BMX, and surfing.

Demento's radio network at the time, when he announced he had another parody. Like roller skating, skateboarding is often done for recreation and as a sport, but, more often than ice skating, it is a method of transportation. In 1980, Al was working the mail room at Westwood One, Dr. Someone who skateboards is a skater (or skateboarder or most fully skateboard rider), though the shortest term may also refer to someone ice skating or roller skating. Demento's listeners put this track atop his "Funny Five" list. Skateboarding is the act of rolling on or interacting with a skateboard. Dr. Danny Way.

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. Mike Vallely. 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). Tony Trujillo. Al was a senior at Lynwood High School in Lynwood, California at the time, but that tape was the start of his eventual career. Jamie Thomas. 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. Ed Templeton.

After hearing Dr. Aaron Suski. Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic, the son of Nick & Mary Yankovic, first started playing the accordion one day before his seventh birthday, mastering the instrument by age ten. Elissa Steamer. His works include four gold and four platinum records. Arto Saari. He is known in particular for humorous songs which satirize popular culture and/or parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. Kanten Russell.

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is an American musician, parodist and accordion player. Geoff Rowley. Because of the potentially crippling amount of royalties requred for this, Weird Al's record labels have had to engage in endless negotiation and diplomacy. Andrew Reynolds. Because of his polka-medleys, Wierd Al can wind up performing works by dozens of artists on a single album. Stacy Peralta. Licensing issues for Weird Al's works are some of the most complicated in the music industry. Tom Penny.

He only asks for permission to maintain good relationships and avoid nuissance law suits. Chad Muska. Because parody is recognized as fair use by copyright laws, Wierd Al is actually free to make fun of any artist's work without permision. Rodney Mullen. Interestingly, Weird Al has only backed down from artists like Prince and Eminem out of courtesy and convenience. Guy Mariano. Says Al: "Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career ...". Bam Margera.

Al was also requested to change the video for his remake of Eminem's "Lose yourself". Jason Lee. Also, Prince has refused to allow parodies, though Weird Al has stated that he continues to "check back with him to see if he has developed a sense of humor" in interviews. Bucky Lasek. Al apologized for the misunderstanding. Eric Koston. Coolio was very displeased since his management told Weird Al to go ahead with the parody without consulting him. Heath Kirchart.

While artists are generally pleased with Weird Al, there are three notable exceptions. Tony Hawk. On November 10, 2004, The Onion published an editorial titled "I Must Take Issue With The Wikipedia Entry For Weird Al Yankovic.". Mark Gonzales. Examples are Al wearing a 27 on the cover of the Running With Scissors album and including 27 photos in the photo gallery on the "Weird Al Yankovic Live!" DVD. Rune Glifberg. Al often hides the number 27 somewhere in his songs, album art, and memorabilia. Kareem Campbell.

Al has put two backwards messages into his songs: the first, in Nature Trail to Hell, said "Satan Eats Cheez Whiz"; the second, in I Remember Larry, said "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands." [1] (http://www.al-oholicsanonymous.com/faq/#secret). Steve Caballero. Side two of the album is "Carnival of the Animals, Part II" which is a sort of homage to The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens, with Weird Al taking the role of Edward Lear in writing humorous poems about the slug, the shark, etc. Bob Burnquist. Don Ameche! What? He can't make it?", while the music features various innovations by Wendy Carlos over the original by Sergei Prokofiev. Stephen Berra. Weird Al's text modifies the original story considerably: "The Grandfather will be played by.. Mark Appleyard.

Peter and the Wolf - 1988: "This warped classical children's record featuring narration and poems written by "Weird Al" Yankovic and music arranged, composed and performed by synthesizer whiz Wendy Carlos" - WeirdAl.com (http://weirdal.com/). Tony Alva. Babalu Music - 1991: A collection of I Love Lucy music. Jay Adams. UHF- 1989: A commercially unsuccessful movie satirizing the television industry, starring Yankovic, Michael Richards, Fran Drescher and Victoria Jackson. "It's All About the Pentiums" (Parody of Puff Daddy's "It's All About The Benjamins").

"Amish Paradise" (Parody of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise"). "Living with a Hernia" (Parody of James Brown's "Living In America"). "Fat" (Parody of the title track from Michael Jackson's Bad album). "Grapefruit Diet" (Parody of Cherry Poppin' Daddies' "Zoot Suit Riot").

"Like A Surgeon" (Parody of Madonna's "Like a Virgin"). "Phony Calls" (Parody of TLC's "Waterfalls"). "Bedrock Anthem" (Parodies of Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under The Bridge" and "Give It Away"). "Gump" (Parody of the Presidents of the United States of America's "Lump").

"Theme from Rocky XIII" (Parody of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger"). "Jerry Springer" (Parody of Barenaked Ladies' "One Week"). "Cavity Search" (Parody of U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"). "Smells Like Nirvana" (Parody of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit").

"Pretty Fly for a Rabbi" (Parody of The Offspring's "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)"). "I Love Rocky Road" (Parody of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock N' Roll"). "Eat It" (Parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It"). "The Saga Begins" (Parody of Don McLean's "American Pie"; tells the story of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace).

"Couch Potato" (Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from the movie 8 Mile). "Ricky" (a parody of "Mickey" by Toni Basil, humorous lyrics themed from I Love Lucy; a parody of and tribute to the series). "Albuquerque" an extremely funny, but long, song, about Al's weird ventures into the city of Albuquerque - it's 11 and a half minutes long!. "Headline News" (Parody of "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by Crash Test Dummies) - 1994.

Theme from "Spy Hard" (Spy Hard soundtrack - 1996). "Polkamon" (Pokémon The Movie 2000 (soundtrack) - 2000). The Saga Begins - 1999. The TV Album - 1995.

Greatest Hits - Volume II - 1994. Permanent Record - Al in the Box - 1994. The Food Album - 1993. The Best Of Yankovic - 1992 (Korean LP).

Greatest Hits - 1988. Poodle Hat - 2003. Running With Scissors - 1999. Bad Hair Day - 1996.

Alapalooza - 1994. Off the Deep End - 1992. UHF (movie soundtrack) - 1989. Even Worse - 1988.

Polka Party - 1986. Dare to Be Stupid - 1985. "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D - 1984. Weird Al Yankovic - 1983.