“Weird Al” Yankovic’s most essential songs: 25 stinging satires that still endure
From "Eat It" to "Amish Paradise," we're counting down Weird Al's best pop parodies from the last 40 years
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“Weird Al” Yankovic is having one of his periodic moments. Having just wrapped up his The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour—concerts where he shone a spotlight on his often under-appreciated original songs—he now sees the release Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, a biopic starring Daniel Radcliffe as the pop parodist. Fittingly, Weird uses the past as merely a suggestion, serving more as a parody of biopic conventions than a history of the musician who is by every measure the most successful musical comedian in recorded history.
When Yankovic first came on the scene in the early 1980s singing “My Bologna” and “Eat It,” he seemed destined to be a fleeting novelty. Instead, he defied all expectations and wound up with a 40-year career filled with stinging satires and clever original songs that unexpectedly still sound good—and still are funny—years after their release. Weird provides The A.V. Club the perfect opportunity to look back at that long, strange career and celebrate “Weird Al” songs that still endure.
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First, Albuquerque isn’t a parody. Second, where’s Party in the CIA?
Albuquerque is kinda a style parody though. It’s not Dare To be Stupid levels of style parody where it’s practically a Devo song, but more of a generalized thing.
Also, the title is satires, not parodies.
It’s a pretty darn close style parody of “Dick’s Automotive” by The Rugburns
Okay, from what I remembered from Al it was like George Thorogood etc. Was not aware of this song.
So yeah, definitely a style parody.
It’s gotta be the most obscure thing that Al based one of his classics on. Most of the comments on that YouTube video are about Weird Al and Albuquerque, because no one knows this song except for us dorks saying “Um, actually, Albuquerque IS a style parody.”
Midnight Star isn’t even a style parody. Great song but not a parody.
The opening sounds very Springsteen but it doesn’t maintain throughout.
Thanks, I was hoping someone would say this.
From “Eat It” to “Amish Paradise,” we’re counting down Weird Al’s best pop parodies from the last 40 years
I saw Weird Al at the Return of the I’ll Advised Vanity Tour this year. One funny thing was how he point out that One More Minute is basically the opposite of You Don’t Love Me Anymore.
Ahem…where the fuck is Fat?No Rye or the Kaiser?You ignored two of his best songs about food. What were you thinking?
Fat is terrible and embarrassing and shameful. I was really disappointed to see reference to it (and a fat suit? gross) in the movie. So actually pretty glad it wasn’t heralded here.
He no longer performs it, I believe.
lol
And you skipped over such classics as The White Stuff and Taco Grande.
Weird Al is a music icon.
He’s gotta be one of the most clever writers of my lifetime. He’s like Eddie Murphy of the music world, just pulls hysterically random references out of the air.
He also has the greatest backup band in history. Who else could play so many different styles and genres so perfectly?
Career studio musicians?
Sure but he got some virtual randos off the street, they’re amazing, and the exact same band has stayed together for 40 years now. I’ll take that over career studio musicians any day.
He has to be one of the best rappers of all time.
It makes me so happy to see “Midnight Star” on this list. I was expecting all parodies, so seeing some deep-cut originals was a pleasant surprise!
I was happy to see a few of his originals on the list too, but a little disappointed that they seemed to imply they were parodies.
They’re style/genre parodies, just not parodies of any specific songs.
I mean, sure, you could call anything a parody. But if it’s not a parody of anything specific, is it a parody, an homage, or just a song in that style?
I gotta say, great list. It’s going to be controversial (buncha nerds!) but you got CNR, Everything You Know Is Wrong, The Night Santa Went Crazy, and a bunch of other frequently overlooked songs in addition to most of the obvious picks…I’m glad you’re shining some light on what another commenter called the “deep-cut originals”.
The thing about “Everything You Know is Wrong” is that it is *so* dead on TMBG (particularly early TMBG like ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Flood’) that you could listen to it and actually think it *was* a TMBG song. He has the sound down as well as the typical surreal TMBG lyrics about hibachi dealers removing their prosthetics.
A song I don’t hear much about, but it’s always been a personal favorite, is “Genius in France.”
Yes, any Zappa fan should check that out.
I’m kind of sad “Nature Trail to Hell” didn’t make the list.
It’s good, clean family fun. What have you got to lose? If you like the 6 oclock news then you’ll love Nature Trail to Hell: in 3D.
I guess it doesn’t qualify as parody, unless I’m missing some deep cut it’s based upon.NA-NA-NA NATURE TRAIL TO HELL! IN THREE DEE-EEEEEEEEEEEEE
Came to the comments for this very reason. Nature Trail to Hell is my #1.
Nature Trail to Hell (in 3D!) absolutely slaps. Plus, it makes me want to see the movie.
Save yourself the time. #1: White & Nerdy.Also, it’s time for Al to make the Rock Hall. Has he ever gotten any votes?Greatest parody-ist of all-time seems worthy of consideration along with a long, sustained career.
No offence to Al, because he’s a legend, but are any of his satires “stinging?” The guy has made a career on silly apolitical jokes. I wouldn’t call any of his songs satire. They’re parodies.
Here, become enlightened.
Well, you got me. There is one. The rest of his catalogue is not like this.
Very true. But that one’s scathing.
No one talks about the dark side of Skeet Surfing.
Weird that both that and Al’s “Trigger Happy” both are tying their satire of gun culture to the Beach Boys’ sound. I wonder if there is a connection.
I think because in the 80s The Beach Boys were still the height of the All American Sound. The Zucks and Al both realized the only thing more All American was assholes with guns.
“Stinging” was a really odd word to choose.
stinging??
I say Weird Al is way more funny and family friendly.
It’s an obvious target and a bit broad, but Party In The CIA is ironically critical of said agency.
It’s not exactly Swift. But I will allow that some of his satires did “sting.” However, the 25 included in this list were so free of Sting, that even the inclusion of King of Suede wouldn’t have changed that.
Yeah, I’m really bummed Party in the CIA wasn’t on the list. It was definitely aimed squarely at the soft jingoism of the original
Two notes on this:“Skipper Dan” (about a Disney Jungle Cruise ride operator) is maybe the closest I’ve ever heard to Al getting depressing and frankly a little mean in any of his songs. For a song that is supposed to be comedic in tone, it’s a huge miss.“The Check’s in the Mail” may have just been another album filler song back in its day, but give it a listen now. It is a great encapsulation of that certain kind of a disingenuous smooth talker, not too dissimilar from our last POTUS. It was a joke of a stereotype in the 1980s when he put the song out, but it has a lot darker ring to it now that we know how toxic those types of people can be.
I’m very impressed that my tossed off comment has yielded so many great examples, especially these deeper readings.
I think “This Song is Just Six Words Long” is kind of a gentle sting.
That Sting’s so gentle, it’s practicing tantric sex.
Clearly someone has never heard his unreleased early 80’s parody “It’s Still Billy Joel To Me.”
That is correct.
Yoda is probably my favorite of his just because the source material is so great. Other honorable mentions: That’s your horoscope for today (let me give you my assurance that these forecasts and predictions are all based on solid scientific documented evidence so you would have to be some kind of moron not to realize that every single one of them is absolutely true, where was I?) and Jurassic Park (A huge tyrannosaurus ate our lawyer. Well, I suppose that proves they’re really not all bad)
I definitely agree that it’s far better than “The Saga Begins” (which I consider to be less actually clever). “Yoda” would be in my top 5 “Weird Al” songs.
I love that run-on sequence in “Horoscope”, and also the list of all that stuff on the shelves in “Hardware Store”.
I was very pleased to hear ‘Horoscope’ on this year’s tour.
So we’re all going to brush over the fact that the number one song on this list just happens to name check this very website?
Payola dies hard!
Though I didn’t see any mentions of the song’s sweet, sweet, Laurel Canyon sound.
Here I was thinking “so look how many comments you get when publishing a lengthy article (slideshow, but that ship’s sailed) that shows depth of knowledge about the subject” and then am ALSO treated to a Dawes reference. Brings me hope for humanity.
He wrote a song about the sort of people who would believe there’s any connection there. It’s called Foil, I believe.
You are probably making a joke, but just in case you aren’t, the “AV Club” mentioned in the song is referring to actual clubs that used to be in schools (which this website is named after). AV equipment like movie projectors wasn’t exactly user-friendly in the 1980s and earlier, and members of the AV Club got to do things like learn how to run movie projectors and often could help teachers when they were having problems with them.
… and being a member of your school’s AV club was incontrovertible proof that you, young student, were a Nerd.(Or a Geek, depending on your local dialect.)
I was most definitely making a joke, but thank you for your thoughtful explanation. I am not sure that my high school had an AV club, but I watched enough “Freaks and Geeks” to know what one was regardless!
It’s been a while, seem about time for another local DJ to lock himself in the studio and play “Amish Paradise” on loop again.
Melanie is one of my favorite originals. I never noticed the Marshall Crenshaw thing, but I can hear it now.
Side note – always good to see a Crenshaw shout-out. He gets nowhere near enough credit for his power-pop writing excellence (except from other musicians, which I’m sure he appreciates). I’m partial to Cynical Girl and Someplace where Love Can’t Find Me, personally.
I came to say the same thing. It is a damn shame that Crenshaw doesn’t get the respect he is due. It is, of course, a compliment to Weird Al that he is a fan.
‘Melanie’ is definitely a top 5 Al original for me.
Nothing for “Trigger Happy”, the song with razor-sharp parody that slices gun-humpers to oblivion to a peppy Beach Boys sound? C’mon now. It’s all the more important for how sadly timeless it’s become; when my little brother heard it for the first time, he couldn’t believe it had been recorded in the early ‘90s.
Missing my favorite, Callin’ In Sick Today. (A style parody of 80s power anthems, not a song parody to my knowledge). A quiet quitter anthem for the ages.
I read it was a style parody of grunge(also, it’s “Callin’ In Sick”).
It’s basically a mashup of Lithium and Come As You Are, which is odd being on the same album as Smells Like Nirvana.
Agree that ‘Callin’ In Sick’ borrows heavily from ‘Come As You Are’, but it’s on “Bad Hair Day”, not “Off the Deep End”.
Guh, absolutely right.I may have been thinking of Bad Hair Day having both Syndicated Inc, a direct Soul Asylum parody, and The Night Santa Went Crazy, which borrows from Soul Asylum’s “Black Gold”.
Good call — the first time I heard “Santa”, I thought it was an actual parody of ‘Black Gold’.
Oh man, sad to not see my favorite original not on here: Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota!
I’m never going to understand his appeal to anyone over the age of 9.
Of the songs that didn’t make it on here that I love? I have to mention Germs. That’s just a great, great song.
It really is, and despite how many times I’ve heard it, the last line cracks me up every single time.
I’m going to throw out a recommendation for “NOW That’s What I Call Polka!” from his album Mandatory Fun. That song is manic and crazy and somehow works better than some of the originals somehow.
“Word Crimes” and “Amish Paradise” are my go-tos. I also like “Perform This Way.”
Perform This Way should absolutely have been on the list. Funny song in its own right and a perfect sendup of the original artist.
An actual list of his best songs wouldn’t have any of the direct parodies.
Missing from this list, among many:
Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota
Frank’s 2000″ TV
Buy Me A Condo
Velvet Elvis
Jackson Park Express
Generic Blues
Skipper Dan
I find “Skipper Dan” to be an unnecessarily cruel song. It’s one of the few Al songs I genuinely dislike. The rest of your list is good, though, especially “Biggest Ball of Twine.”
See and I feel completely different about “Skipper Dan.” It’s the only Al original that genuinely moves me. I’m a failed artist I guess (like I’m not, but I’m also not famous) and that song perfectly captures what it feels like, how sad and poignant but also ridiculous and hilarious the whole situation can be. I adore that song.
It (“Skipper Dan”) almost feels like it’s about his own life.
Having worked at Disney long ago and talked to a few skippers, the song is (or at least was) actually pretty spot on.
Most of his songs aren’t even parodies, and they’re even better than the parodies too
Most are style parodies of bands or scenes. Some are wholly original.
Some of my top faves of his are ones that are genre/style parodies rather than direct parodies. A few are included in this list (“One More Minute” and “UHF”), but I must give honorable mentions to “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota,” “Christmas at Ground Zero,” and “Good Enough for Now.”
“Close But No Cigar” is a favorite of mine.
No Foil. Drat.
“Foil” is excellent for that hard-left turn into wacko paranoia (that used to be funny and mockable and is now frighteningly a large part of too many political platforms).
What about I Think I’m a Clone Now and Taco Grande?
I’d put in a vote for Since You’ve Been Gone and Hardware Store, myself, but a great list.
“Hardware Store” is amazing.
You got #1 right, but I would have liked to have seen “Craigslist” on here, esp. since Ray Manzarek himself provided the trippy psychedelic organ.
Once upon a time, my friend was figuratively rolling his eyes at Weird Al’s music, and as “Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies” started playing, he proceeded to rip the guy playing the opening guitar solo.
After I told him that he was ripping Mark Knopfler His Own Self, the car got very quiet.
My favorite Weird Al song that’s not on the list is Hardware Store. Truth be told, it’s not very funny (except for “automatic circumcisers”), but the song is a straight up banger. The unpredictable chorus is reminiscent of “South American Getaway” from the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid soundtrack, and the breakdown has a slow burn intensity that keeps building up and up.
The rapid-fire lyrics in the bridge are incredible.
Some more greats:“You Make Me”, a style parody of Oingo Boingo that I would love to hear Danny Elfman make a cover of. “Frank’s 2000 inch TV”, an REM style parody, also just a great tune, and you can tell the exact songs he was listening to.“This Song Is Just Six Words Long” Skewers not just the George Harrison song but lazy lyrics in general.
The title is “This Song’s Just Six Words Long.” Otherwise it’s seven words long.There’s a strong argument to be made for Even Worse being his best record (ironically). The originals are all super solid, and the parodies are all great. “I Think I’m A Clone Now” is my all-time favorite parody of his.
Predictably missing “Fat”. lulz..
The fact the comments are all arguing over what songs deserve to be on the list over other songs on the list just goes to show how enduring a career Al has had.The sheer breadth and depth of his catalogue is ASTOUNDING.
Is there a way to have the youtube video automatically stop when you go to the next slide? The sound keeps going when you go to the next slide. This system is flawed.
Kinda funny given how healthy his diet is now, but “I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead” is a favorite of mine from his debut.
I still think it’s funny that the guy who got his start with “My Balogna” as well as SPAM is a vegetarian
Elon Might ban these tracks if they arent explicitly labeled Parody/satire
“Trapped In the Drive-Thru” – 11 minutes of awesome.
He’s no Nigel Blackwell.
Nope. Just nope. “Fat” isn’t on your list and “Word Crimes” should be higher–Top 10.
Dare to be Stupid made the Transformers animated movie a classic.
Anyone into comedy songs should check out this guy named Robbie Ellis. Really clever stuff that reminds me of Tom Lehrer and Weird Al mashed up with Gilbert and Sullivan. This one’s especially funny for Chicago locals:
It makes me sad that “Jurassic Park” didn’t make the list – if only because doing a parody song based around the sprawling Donna Summer cover of MacArthur Park is a feat onto of itself.Side note: Did you watch the video for White and Nerdy embedded above? Who are those two disapproving gangsters in the car? Yes, it’s none other than a very young Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. Small world!
better than imitation
My Theme for Election Day:
“You Don’t Love me Anymore” wasn’t a parody, but the video certainly was:Extreme: “More than Words”
Thoughts: 1) I like “Smells like Nirvana” far more than I like any song actually BY Nirvana2) “The Saga Begins” is too far down on the list3) Why did “Word Crimes” make this list, while “Perform This Way” and “Party in the CIA” didn’t?
Anyone just now today notice that’s Key and Peele in the White & Nerdy video? I would generally put Dare to be Stupid at the top but I know that’s a popular answer. And yeah UHF rocks way harder than it needs to.
I get a kick out of Weird Al Yankovic, but it’s a bit of a stretch to consider any of this stuff “stinging.”
Loved most of these but Dare to be Stupid will always get me going cause it was on the Transformers the Movie soundtrack.
Dare to be Stupid is not just an amazing Weird Al song but an amazing song overall. I still my copy of the Transformers the Movie soundtrack on cassette from 1986 with that song on it.
No Skipper Dan, no Frank’s 2000 Inch TV, no Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota? Humbug.
My perennial Albuquerque story is that I had Running with Scissors on an audio cassette that had been taped for me by a friend, and the recording cut off exactly as Weird Al says “Guy told me he hadn’t had a bite in three days. Well I knew what he meant, but-”
It was over a decade after first hearing this song that I learned that’s not where it normally ends. To this day I still think my version is funnier, though the original is more satisfying.
while al is amazing and im glad to have it verified that “everything you know is wrong” is definitly a tmbg stylistic parody. A standard on his records are his polkas, where he jsut does polka snippets of popular songs that wouldnt get a full parody. usually its funny because its very serious songs that he makes extremely silly, and none beat out “the alternative polka” where he actually does nine inch nails “closer” , its beautifully sacriligious for NIN fans with its silliness but it kills with taking the “ i wanna fuck you like an animal” line and replaces the fuck with a slide whistle. i fell out of my chair because “closer” is so aggressively serious and he is just completely making balloon animals with it, its hysterical.
Also, on youtube his very funny ska song “thats your horiscope for today” has a venerable “love hina” amv made for it that i swear even he considers the official video.
Nice to see more than 50% originals, considering the movie builds a joke around how most people don’t even know that he wrote original songs. It’s a crime that Frank’s 2000″ TV and Skipper Dan (the saddest Weird Al song?) don’t make the list though.
Relistening to “Midnight Star” now, it’s clear that The Hold Steady should cover it.
I get why Dare to be Stupid is so high up, I’ve seen Mothersbaugh happily admit the song is the most Devo thing he’s ever heard, which is hilarious.
Just a few honorable mentions / recommendations, for the next list:Another One Rides the BusGrapefruit DietParty at the Leper ColonyTrapped in the Drive-Thru (almost as good as Albuquerque)I Love Rocky RoadJerry SpringerPancreasJust to name a few…Also, it’s about time Al puts out a “Live” album. If you’ve ever seen Al live, you’d know what I mean. He comes alive! He let’s out his full nerd!
I always enjoyed Ricky, the I Love Lucy tribute sung to the tune of Toni Basil’s Mickey.Oh Ricky, what’s a girl like me supposed to do?
You really drive me wild when you sing your Babaloo.
His originals are just as essential as his covers.
Al is an all time genius and should be nominated and inducted into rock and roll hall of fame as he is everywhere in pop culture…and for good reason. And when discussing the great sound of certain songs you are of course giving well earned props to his long time awesome band. I have seen him live approx 18 times and will every single chance I get.