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Weird Al Yankovic Bio
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Weird Al Yankovic
Alfred Matthew Yankovic, more commonly known as Weird Al Yankovic, has become the ultimate parody musical artist, building his career on making fun of other songs. Besides writing parodies to popular music, Yankovic is also an accordionist and television producer.
Yankovic was born on October 23, 1959, in Downey, California . His parents, Nick and Mary, raised their only child in Lynwood, California. For his seventh birthday, Yankovic got an accordion as a present and was given his first lesson. He took lessons over the next three years before he began learning on his own terms. He then learned how to play rock music on the instrument while practicing to Elton John’s album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
In school, Yankovic was labeled a nerd early on because he started kindergarten a year earlier than everyone else and then skipped the second grade. Throughout his high school career he was a straight-A student and was involved in a variety of extra curricular activities including the Volcano Worshippers Club. Yankovic also became valedictorian of his senior class.
Throughout the 1970s, Yankovic was a fan of Dr. Demento’s radio show. By his senior year in high school he began submitting songs and parodies to the DJ who ended up putting one song, “Belvedere Cruisin’” on the air. This proved to be the beginning of a long successful journey for Yankovic.
Following high school, Yankovic attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as an architecture student. There, his fellow students dubbed him Weird Al which he chose to use as his professional name while working as a DJ at the college radio station.
During his senior year of college he recorded the song “My Bologna,” which was a parody of “My Sharona” by The Knack. He submitted the song to Dr. Demento, who often played it on his radio show. After meeting The Knack at a concert and telling them about his song, the group suggested that Capital Records release it as a single. The label also gave Yankovic a six month recording contract.
By 1981, Yankovic realized he had a budding career as a musician and comedian and went on tour with Dr. Demento’s stage show. While on tour he met with manager Jay Levey who suggested that Yankovic form a full band. Yankovic held auditions and got a band together who played their first disappointing show together in 1981 which resulted in them being booed off the stage by the audience.
Since then, Yankovic has released too many parodies and albums to count and has developed a cult following, which once in a while helps him to translate one of his songs into a top 40 hit on the Billboard charts.
What makes Yankovic unique from other parody artists is that he records his voice and new lyrics to the original music, which is unlike other artists who choose to reproduce the music. Even though he is not required to do so by law, Yankovic also gets permission from each artist he plans on parodying to maintain good relationships in the industry. Some of the artists who are Weird Al fans include: Nirvana, Michael Jackson, and Don McLean.
In 2001, Yankovic married Suzanne Krajewski. On February 11, 2003 they welcomed their first daughter, Nina, into the world. The family owns a poodle named Bela and a cockatiel named Bo. |
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Yuddy top celebrities
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