"Weird Al" Yankovic

I haven't been a huge fan of his for very long. I used to listen to his songs when I was 6 or 7, but I'm 14, now, and my grandpa got me obsessed last week by posting Word Crimes on my Facebook wall.

So it joins White and Nerdy, Eat It, and I'm blanking on the fourth, but I think it's Smells Like Nirvana? Wouldn't that be four decades? (80's, 90's, 2000's, and 2010's)

Correct.

I was kinda surprised to learn that Elton John never had a top 40 hit in the US in the 2000s.

Has anyone managed to score a top 40 hit in five different decades yet?

Because if he keeps going like he has, I expect that barring the unexpected we're likely to see him pull off such a stunt come sometime post 2020.

Seriously, if this is meant to be his final studio album, congratulations Weird Al for making it a landmark.

Looking forward to whatever singles he may produce.

"Mission Statement" might be my favorite of the songs with videos. It's the style of music I'm most familiar with, and I'm not even a big fan of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (love Neil Young on the other hand). I also love how it's a big ball of dumbass business-speak and buzzwords.

edited 24th Jul '14 2:25:43 AM by Rotpar

That fact is also amusing considering Eat It was his first such hit. (Too bad Like A Surgeon wasn't, or that would be even more appropriate.)

I was listening to Trapped in the Drive Thru again, and it just occurred to me, what kind of fast food place these days charges for refills and doesn't accept credit cards as payment?

"Like a Surgeon" was always one of my favorites of his. Its music video especially takes it up to a whole 'nother level.

Really, Weird Al is just grand in any era. Yesterday on my radio show I ended up playing three of his songs, "Foil", "I Think I'm a Clone Now", and "Pancreas".

I really like Like a Surgeon.

I'd like to issue a correction: Weird Al is not the third artist to have a top 40 hit in four different decades. (Quite a few artists have accomplished this feat.) He is the third artist to have a top 40 hit in every decade since the 1980s. Bit of a difference there.

edited 24th Jul '14 11:36:09 AM by TotemicHero

For some reason, my favorite Weird Al song is "Gump".

I am rather fond of the way he ends the song.

The kind that makes for a more entertaining song.

Honestly, 2006 was a very, very different time.

Really, the most dated reference I can think of on Straight Outta Lynwood is the one to Myspace on White and Nerdy.

@Totemic Hero: Is that the case? Ugh.

In that case, to answer an earlier question, since Michael had a hit this year with "Love Never Felt So Good" (we have to blame Biggie and Tupac for this somehow), he indeed has five straight decades worth of top 40 hits. And top 10 hits, for that matter.

So, I put together a playlist of every Weird Al polka medley, in chronological order. These were obviously never meant to be listened to all in a row, but doing so is strangely satisfying. I think part of it is that inevitably, Weird Al albums end up being a sonic time capsule of whatever year it was that they came out, and the polka medleys perhaps even more so: Listening to them all in a row you sort of get a brief history of the past 3 decades of music... In polka.

Other thoughts upon listening to it all in a row:

• "Polkas On 45" is somewhat the Early-Installment Weirdness entry in the series, in that it features both relatively contemporary songs and older ones.
• "Hot Rocks Polka" gets credit for out-Lyrical Dissonance-ing the original of "Brown Sugar".
• Related: Rolling Stones have been in two polka medleys: "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was in "Polkas On 45" and "Hot Rock Polka" is of course entirely Rolling Stones songs.
• Artists who have received both polka medley features and style parody covers: The B-52s, R.E.M. ^note They've been polka-ized twice, no less, FooFighters, Weezer. Artist who have received polka medley features, style parodies, and straight up parodies: Queen^note Well, "Bohemian Polka" is a complete cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the style of polka, but it counts in spirit.
• "The Alternative Polka" and "Polka Your Eyes Out" both pull the amusing trick of starting out exactly like the first song in the medley before shifting into the polka style.
• It's kind of odd to me that Sheryl Crow was ever considered "alternative".

edited 27th Jul '14 9:24:45 PM by MikeK

Obsessive additions and corrections:

• REM goes next to Queen on that list, as the UHF album has "Spam", a parody of "Stand". So do the Police, as Al polkaed "Every Breath You Take", parodied "King of Pain" and did a style parody called "Velvet Elvis".
• Other artists that also have both a polka and style parody: Devo ("Jocko Homo", "Dare To Be Stupid"), the Doors ("L.A. Woman", "Craigslist"), Talking Heads ("Burning Down The House", "Dog Eat Dog"), Peter Gabriel ("Sledgehammer", "Waffle King"), Nine Inch Nails ("Closer", "Germs"), Beastie Boys ("Intergalactic", "Twister"), Hanson ("Mmmbop", "If That Isn't Love"), the White Stripes ("Fell In Love With A Girl", "CNR"), and Rage Against The Machine ("Renegades Of Funk", "I'll Sue Ya").
• The Rolling Stones also did "Harlem Shuffle", which was polkaed on "Polka Party" if you want to count it as a third polka with them. Four if you count how Mick Jagger sang on "State Of Shock", the first song on "Hooked On Polkas".

I assume "Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me" is the only producer-based style parody? (It parodies Jim Steinman's production style.)

To date, it seems so. It's hard to think of a lot of producers with a distinctive enough style among multiple artists to mimic. Maybe Mutt Lange.

On the video end, "It's All About The Pentiums" was a parody of Hype Williams's direction even when it wasn't directly spoofing the original (rock remix) video or "Mo Money Mo Problems".

Have a React video.

And a tribute:

On that React video: I don't remember exactly how old I was when my parents first introduced me to Weird Al's music, but it was early on enough that he's basically a lifelong constant for me. It makes me a little sad that some of those teens apparently had never even heard of him before making that video.

Was that made by the same people behind the video for Mission Statement?

Yes, they're the ones who did "Mission Statement".

@React video... I was waiting for them to do that, and I'm so happy that they did! I was introduced to Weird Al by my brother when I was really little. One of the first songs I'd heard was the Drive Thru one. And we would all just laugh while we were sitting at the table. Al has created some of my best memories.