Turner associated with many of these guests and played music with them. In high school, Turner joined a local rhythm ensemble called the Tophatters who played dances around Clarksdale, Mississippi. Turner, who was trained by ear and could not sight read , would learn the pieces by listening to a version on record at home, pretending to be reading the music during rehearsals. Their early stage performances consisted largely of covers of popular jukebox hits. King helped them to get a steady weekend gig and recommended them to Sam Phillips at Sun Studio.
The pair played drums and piano on radio sessions and supported Nighthawk at blues dates around Clarksdale. Playing with Nighthawk allowed Turner to gig regularly and build up playing experience. Turner described the scenario to an interviewer:.
We played juke joints ; we'd start playing at 8. No intermissions, no breaks. If you had to go to the restroom, well that's how I learned to play drums and guitar! When one had to go, someone had to take his place. Around this time Turner and his band recorded the song " Rocket 88 ". Jackie Brenston , a saxophonist in the Kings of Rhythm, sang lead vocals.
Turner played piano on the recording, and his intro was later used nearly note-for-note by Little Richard in "Good Golly Miss Molly". The record sold approximately half a million copies. The success of Rocket 88 caused tensions and ego clashes in the band, causing Brenston to leave to pursue a solo career, taking some of the original members with him. Turner, without a band and disappointed his hit record had not created more opportunities for him, disbanded the Kings of Rhythm for a few years.
After recording Rocket 88 , Turner became a session musician and production assistant for Philips and the Bihari Brothers , commuting to Memphis from Clarksdale. He began by contributing piano to a B. It became King's first hit.
Wishing to exploit Turner's Delta music connections, Bihari contracted him as a talent scout, paying him to find southern musicians who might be worth recording. Turner estimated he "wrote 78 hit records for the Biharis. Turner was contracted to the Bihari Brothers, but he continued to work for Phillips, where he was effectively the in-house producer. This sometimes created conflicts of interest. Trumpet found out and Modern had to cancel the record. In , Turner took a reformed version of the Kings of Rhythm north to St. Turner moved over to playing guitar to accommodate Annie Mae, taking lessons from Willie Kizart to improve.
Turner maintained strict discipline, insisting they live in a large house with him so he could conduct early-morning rehearsals. He remained a teetotaler until the age of 30, and had never taken drugs. He insisted all band members also adopt this policy, and fired anyone he even suspected of breaking the rules. Starting off playing at a club called Kingsbury's in Madison, Illinois , within a year Turner had built up a full gig schedule, establishing his group as one of the most highly rated on the St.
Louis club circuit, vying for popularity with their main competition, Sir John's Trio featuring Chuck Berry. The bands would play all-nighters in St. Louis, then cross the river to the clubs of East St. Louis, Illinois , and continue playing until dawn. Turner played in St. Louis, his group played Kingsbury's, Club Manhattan and the Sportsman. Turner released two singles on the Stevens label and under the anagram, "Icky Renrut", as he was still under contract with Sun for several more months and did not want to cause friction with Phillips.
None of the Stevens singles had wide distribution when released and have since become collectible among vinyl record enthusiasts and deejays. Also in , Turner was charged with what he described as "interstate transportation of forged checks and conspiracy" and was forced to stand trial in St. At the first trial, the jury failed to reach a verdict, and at the retrial a year later, Turner was found not guilty. Aillene was a barmaid at the club and was dating Turner's drummer, Eugene Washington. Impressed by her voice, Ike Turner invited her to join the band, giving her the stage name "Little Ann".
In March , Turner used Anna Mae's voice on a recording of his self-penned song " A Fool in Love " to lay down a guide track for a male singer who did not attend the recording. He sent the recording to Sue Records in New York, where label owner Juggy Murray insisted on putting out the track with Bullock's vocal. When Ike Turner asked her to use his last name as an attempt to discourage Hill, Anna Mae took the offer.
Robert Palmer writes, "There was never any doubt that Tina Turner was the star Ike kept his own stage presence deliberately low-key, avoiding flamboyant moves and directing the band with underplayed, economical gestures. His songwriting, production and musical direction were geared toward showcasing Tina. The duo produced five more substantial hit singles, including "Poor Fool", " I Idolize You " and a cover of the Joe Seneca track " It's Gonna Work Out Fine ", which gave them their second million-seller and their first Grammy nomination.
After the duo's deal with Sue ended in , Turner moved the band around to different labels, looking for the best deal and between that year and they recorded on Sonja, Warner Bros. The song was not a success in the States, causing Spector's retreat from the music industry, but was a big hit in Europe, reaching No. The studio name was a reference to Tina's maiden name, Bullock. He fitted them out with state-of-the-art equipment, two input output mixing desks custom built by John Stephens and Daniel Flickinger , IBM mix memorizers, an early Eventide digital delay.
In , Turner was arrested for using illegal blue boxes at Bolic to make long-distance phone calls. At the time of the arrest, police officers spent several hours breaking through the studio's heavy security measures, as Ike worked feverishly inside trying to finish various recordings before being taken to jail. He was eventually cleared of the charges. After this the police began surveillance on the studio, believing that other illegal activities were taking place inside. His partnership ended abruptly in with Tina leaving after the last in a series of violent altercations with Turner.
The deal was to be signed on July 6, They got into a fight during their ride to the hotel. Shortly after arriving at the hotel, Tina fled and later hid at a friend's house. On July 27, Tina sued for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. Ike claims that Tina initiated the fight by purposely irritating him so that she'd have a reason to break up with him before they were scheduled to sign a new 5-year contract upon their return from Dallas.
Retrieved January 5, Very quickly, Wenner showed he had no real allegiance to the radical politics that accommodated the music, despite the whims of his employees. Archived from the original on September 28, The Wedding of Charles and Diana v1. Retrieved July 20, When Jackson granted Yankovic permission to do "Fat", Jackson allowed him to use the same set built for his own " Badder " video from the Moonwalker film.
After the breakup, Turner struggled to find success as a solo artist. Maxwell reported a positive working relationship with Turner. Turner admitted that his behavior had become increasingly erratic. Turner was convicted for cocaine possession and sentenced to thirty days in the L.
This was Turner's first conviction.
In April , he was arrested for shooting a year-old newspaper delivery man whom he accused of being physically and verbally abusive to his then wife, Ann Thomas and of kicking his dog. Turner said he only fired a shot to scare him off and that the man had injured himself when he climbed over the fence to get away. A jury in found him not guilty of assault. He later settled his account. He had tried to sell Bolic Sound in to raise funds to avoid foreclosure , but the studio burned down in a fire in January on the day Turner was due to show it to a potential buyer.
Also arrested and charged with him were Eddie Coleman Jr. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell the drug and not guilty to other counts. Released from prison, Turner said he was nervous about returning to performing, but had plans to return to the studio. The track went to No. Produced by Rogers, the remake received favourable reviews. Ike Turner also made an appearance on MADtv in , episode 2. Turner credited Joe Louis Walker with encouraging him to return to his roots in blues music. Turner played guitar and assisted in production on Walker's album Great Guitars and toured internationally with him.
The group headlined a showcase at South by Southwest and were hailed as one of the highlights of the conference. In , Turner revealed he had been diagnosed with emphysema and in his last years was extremely weak, having to use an oxygen tank. His daughter Mia Turner said, "He was too weak from the emphysema to do anything. He'd go in the studio for a couple of minutes and play a couple of bars and say he had to go lay down. Live at the Manchester Opera House.
The Black Keys recorded tracks for Turner to work with. In the year before his death he was hospitalized several times after accidentally falling. After his death in December from a cocaine overdose, Turner's autopsy and toxicology report showed he was taking Seroquel at the time of his death. The medicine is most commonly used as treatment for bipolar disorder , Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
Ex-wife Audrey Madison claims Turner was bipolar and that she was helping him with his illness, a claim supported by Turner's personal assistant and caretaker, Falina Rasool. Rasool says she talked about his bipolar disorder with Turner many times and witnessed its effects:. I would come in the room and see him change like a lightbulb, switch on and switch off. I did ask him about it. He said he made a song about it "Bi Polar", last track on Rising With the Blues and we started laughing He said, 'I know I'm bipolar. However, Turner's daughter Mia Turner rejected this diagnosis, saying that the medication was unnecessary: He was so heavily medicated.
He could hardly speak. He was double stepping and walking sideways. Turner grew up playing boogie woogie piano, which he learned from Pinetop Perkins. Though primarily known as a guitarist, Turner began his career playing piano and personally considered it his main instrument. He decided he was not meant to be a frontman when at 12 years old he was coerced into giving a piano recital at high school.
He found the experience terrifying and from then on preferred to be in the background, controlling every aspect of the music and choreography, but not being the focus of attention. What Ike excelled at was leadership: Turner's guitar style is distinguished by heavy use of the whammy bar to achieve a strong reverb -soaked vibrato , string bending, hammer-ons and triplets in his blues phrasing.
All those years of playing piano and arranging taught him a considerable amount about harmony, as he could certainly navigate I-IV-V chord changes. Ike modestly terms what he does on the guitar as "tricks", but make no mistake, he attacked his axe with the conviction of a man who knew precisely what he wanted to hear come out of it. In , Turner's Kings of Rhythm recorded one of the first instances of use of amplifier distortion. Rocket 88 is notable amongst other things for Willie Kizart's distorted guitar sound.
The model has an alder body in Sonic Blue with an Ike Turner signature in gold ink on the body under the clear-coat, with a maple neck in a s "C" shape with a rosewood fingerboard, with 21 vintage frets. It had three custom single coil s Strat pickups. Robert Palmer wrote, "perhaps he [Turner] played the behind-the-scenes Svengali too seamlessly for his own good.
To the fans who bought the records and concert tickets, his contribution was practically invisible. With his creative work of the '50s largely forgotten and his more recent efforts overshadowed by Tina's larger-than-life presence, he was easily dismissed as a purely exploitative figure riding on his wife's coattails.
Johnny Otis said, "Ike Turner is a very important man in American music. He defined how to put the Fender bass into that music. He was a great innovator. King was a great admirer of Turner, describing him as "The best bandleader I've ever seen". He is the innovator. Phil Alexander, editor-in-chief of Mojo magazine, has credited Turner arrangements of blues standards as being an influence on s British Invasion groups: Without Ike you wouldn't have had the Stones and Zeppelin. People like that wouldn't have had the source material on which they drew.
Speaking of Turner's claim to have written one of the first rock 'n' roll records, broadcaster Paul Gambaccini said:. In musical terms [he was] very important. But "Rocket 88" does have a couple of elements which "The Fat Man" did not.
The wailing saxophone and that distorted electric guitar. It was number one in the rhythm and blues chart for five weeks, it is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and it was an indisputable claim to fame for Ike Turner To critics he will be known as a great founder, unfortunately to the general public he will always be known as a brutal man He was always on the road and he drove himself as well as punishing others.
Nigel Cawthorne —coauthor of Turner's autobiography—said:. Although there had been black rock 'n' rollers who had made it big already, they really only played to a white audience. Ike and Tina played to a mixed audience and he deliberately desegregated audiences in the southern states and he wouldn't play to any segregated audiences at all. Because he had such a big band and entourage he desegregated a lot of the hotels because the hotel chains wouldn't want to miss out on the money they would make from him touring the southern states. The track Funky Mule , also from A Black Man's Soul , has been sampled extensively by jungle DJs, with the drum introduction being a very popular break.
He received intense, negative publicity that was exacerbated in by the release of the film adaptation What's Love Got to Do with It. The film rights to the book were acquired by Disney 's Touchstone Pictures. Tina Turner, commenting on the historical accuracy of the film, said, "I would have liked then to have more truth, but according to Disney, they said it's impossible, the people would not have believed the truth.
After the release of the film and Turner's drug conviction, the fictionalized version of Turner from the movie was seized on by comedians, who reused it in sketches. In one skit, he sang a parody of Tina's song " What's Love Got to Do with It ", in which he sings proudly of his abusive personality. The video also parodies Tina's video: This incarnation of Turner is played as desperate, making verbally derisive remarks to Kevin Nealon , later trying to win back Kevin's "love" with gifts and a cake, and finally shoving Kevin's face into the cake.
In mid, shortly before his senior year, " My Sharona " by The Knack was on the charts and Yankovic took his accordion into the restroom across the hall from the radio station to take advantage of the echo chamber acoustics and recorded a parody titled " My Bologna ". Demento, who played it to good response from listeners. Yankovic met The Knack after a show at his college and introduced himself as the author of "My Bologna". The Knack's lead singer, Doug Fieger , said he liked the song and suggested that Capitol Records vice president Rupert Perry release it as a single.
Yankovic, who was "only getting average grades" in his architecture degree, began to realize that he might make a career of comedic music. On September 14, , Yankovic was a guest on the Dr. Demento Show , where he was to record a new parody live. While practicing the song outside the sound booth, he met Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz , who told him he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Yankovic's accordion case to help Yankovic keep a steady beat during the song. They rehearsed the song just a few times before the show began. Yankovic's record label, TK Records , went bankrupt about two weeks after the single was released, so Yankovic received no royalties from its initial release.
His stage act in a Phoenix, Arizona , nightclub caught the eye of manager Jay Levey, who was "blown away". Yankovic admitted that he had, so Levey held auditions. Schwartz continued on drums. Yankovic's first show with his new band was on March 31, In , Yankovic's first self-titled album was released on Scotti Bros.
The song " Ricky " was released as a single and the music video received exposure on the still-young MTV. Yankovic released his second album "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D in The first single " Eat It ", a parody of the Michael Jackson song " Beat It ", became popular, thanks in part to the music video, a shot-for-shot parody of Jackson's "Beat It" music video, and what Yankovic described as his "uncanny resemblance" to Jackson. In , Yankovic co-wrote and starred in a mockumentary of his own life titled The Compleat Al the title being a parody of the documentary The Compleat Beatles , which intertwined the facts of his life up to that point with fiction.
The movie also featured some clips from Yankovic's trip to Japan and some clips from the Al TV specials. The book, resembling a scrapbook, included real and fictional humorous photographs and documents. Yankovic and his band toured as the opening act for The Monkees in mid for their second reunion tour of North America. Yankovic claims to have enjoyed touring with The Monkees, even though "the promoter gypped us out of a bunch of money.
Up through , six of Yankovic's albums were produced by Rick Derringer , for which he won two Grammy Awards. However, due to a combination of Yankovic's more complex musical scores involving horns and other instruments , and drug-related issues that Derringer had at that time, Yankovic took over production of his albums in A factual biographical booklet of Yankovic's life, written by Dr. Demento , was released with the box set compilation Permanent Record: Al in the Box. Demento Society, which issues yearly Christmas re-releases of material from Dr.
In addition to shedding his glasses, he had shaved off his mustache and grown out his hair. He had previously shaved his moustache in for the video of " Ricky " to resemble Desi Arnaz , and for the " Amish Paradise " video. The commercial featured Yankovic in the short-haired wig from the music video for Hanson's "River", claiming his new look was an attempt to "get back to the core of what I'm all about", that being "the music".
Yankovic has also started to explore digital distribution of his songs. Yankovic said that the benefit of digital distribution is that "I don't have to wait around while my songs get old and dated—I can get them out on the Internet almost immediately. These five digitally released songs were packaged as a digital EP titled Internet Leaks , with "Whatever You Like" retroactively included in the set.
In , Yankovic completed his thirteenth studio album, titled Alpocalypse , which was released on June 21, Yankovic had reported an interest in parodying Lady Gaga 's material, [36] and on April 20 announced that he had written and recorded a parody of " Born This Way " titled " Perform This Way ", to be the lead single for his new album. However, upon first submitting it to Lady Gaga's manager for approval which Yankovic does as a courtesy , he was not given permission to release it commercially.
As he had previously done under similar circumstances with his parody of James Blunt's " You're Beautiful ", which was titled " You're Pitiful " , Yankovic then released the song for free on the internet. Soon afterwards, Gaga's manager admitted that he had denied the parody of his own accord without forwarding the song to his client, and upon seeing it online, Lady Gaga granted permission for the parody.
Yankovic has stated that all of his proceeds from the parody and its music video will be donated to the Human Rights Campaign, to support the human rights themes of the original song. Yankovic stated in September that he was working on a new album, but gave no details. On November 24, , Squeeze Box , a album box set containing all of Yankovic's past albums as well as one new one, was released.
The set is contained within a mock-up of Yankovic's very own accordion. On June 22, , it was announced that Al would be one of those receiving his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in In March , Al released a new song, "The Hamilton Polka", a polka medley consisting of several songs from the musical Hamilton. Yankovic changed his diet to become a vegan in after a former girlfriend gave him the book Diet for a New America and he felt "it made If there's a cheese pizza on the band bus, I might sneak a piece. Yankovic married Suzanne Krajewski in after being introduced by their mutual friend Bill Mumy.
Margolis and Heavy D. On April 9, , Yankovic's parents were found dead in their Fallbrook, California home, the victims of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning from their fireplace. For a couple of hours each night, I could go onstage and put on a big fake smile and pretend like everything was just OK.
Yankovic is well known for creating parodies of contemporary radio hits, typically which make up about half of his studio releases. Unlike other parody artists such as Allan Sherman , Yankovic and his band strive to keep the backing music in his parodies the same as the original, transcribing the original song by ear and re-recording the song for the parody. Although many of Yankovic's songs are parodies of contemporary radio hits, it is rare that the song's primary topic lampoons the original artist as a person, or the song itself.
Most Yankovic songs consist of the original song's music, with a separate, unrelated set of amusing lyrics.
Yankovic claims he has no intention of writing "serious" music. In his reasoning, "There's enough people that do unfunny music. I'll leave the serious stuff to Paris Hilton and Kevin Federline. Yankovic considered that his first true satirical song was " Smells Like Nirvana ", which references unintelligible lyrics in Nirvana 's " Smells Like Teen Spirit ". Yankovic is the sole writer for all his songs and, for "legal and personal reasons", does not accept parody submissions or ideas from fans.
Madonna was reportedly talking with a friend and happened to wonder aloud when Yankovic was going to turn her " Like a Virgin " into " Like a Surgeon ". Madonna's friend was a mutual friend of Yankovic's manager, Jay Levey, and eventually Yankovic himself heard the story from Levey. Most of Yankovic's studio albums include a polka medley of about a dozen contemporary songs at the time of the album, with the choruses or memorable lines of various songs juxtaposed for humorous effect. In Yankovic's early career, before recording his first album, he had performed such polka medleys in live shows in California, though then using songs from lesser-known bands like Bad Brains and the Plasmatics.
He had been inspired to do so from Spike Jones, who had transitioned classical music into polka. The resulting "Polkas on 45", which featured songs from Devo , Deep Purple , Berlin , and The Beatles , was popular, and the polka medley became a staple of all but one of Yankovic's future albums. Yankovic stated that he does not have any unreleased original songs, instead coming up and committing to the song ideas he arrives at for his albums and other releases.
Other songs of his have appeared in films or television series as well, such as " Dare to Be Stupid " in The Transformers: One of Yankovic's recurring jokes involves the number He had originally just pulled the number 27 as a random figure to use in filling out lyrics, but as his fans started to notice the reuse of the number after the first few times, he began to purposely drop references to 27 within his lyrics, videos, and album covers.
He explains that "It's just a number I started using that people started attaching a lot of importance to. Another recurring joke is his attraction to female nostrils or nostrils in general. Yankovic also asks his celebrity guests if they could "shave his back for a nickel. Yankovic has also put two backmasking messages into his songs. While Yankovic's musical parodies generally do not include references to the songs or the artists of the original songs, Yankovic's music videos will sometimes parody the original song's music video in whole or in part.
The video for " Dare to Be Stupid " is, as stated by Yankovic, a style parody in general of Devo videos. Several videos have included appearances by notable celebrities in addition to Yankovic and his band. The video for " I Lost on Jeopardy " includes an appearance by Greg Kihn , the artist whose song, "Jeopardy", was being parodied, along with Don Pardo and Art Fleming , Jeopardy's original announcer and host, as themselves. Florence Henderson plays an Amish seductress in "Amish Paradise". While most videos that Yankovic creates are aired on music channels such as MTV and VH1 , Yankovic worked with animation artists to create music videos for release with extended content albums.
The DualDisc version of Straight Outta Lynwood features six videos set to songs from the release, including videos created by Bill Plympton and John Kricfalusi ; one video, "Weasel Stomping Day" was created by the producers of the show Robot Chicken , and aired as a segment of that program.
For the Alpocalypse , Yankovic produced videos for every song; four of those were previously released for each of the songs on the EP Internet Leaks , with the videos for the remaining songs released via social media sites and included in the deluxe edition of Alpocalypse. These live-action and animated videos were produced by both previous collaborators such as Plympton for "TMZ", [35] video content providers like Jib-Jab and SuperNews!
To help promote his album Mandatory Fun in social media circles, Yankovic produced eight music videos for the album releasing them over eight consecutive days with release of the album, believing it "would make an impact because people would be talking about the album all week long". He chose to distribute the videos to different portals to avoid burdening any single one with all of the costs and work needed to produce them.
This approach proved to be successful, as the total collection of videos had acquired more than 20 million views in the first week. Under the " fair use " provision of U. I don't want to be embroiled in any nastiness. That's not how I live my life. I like everybody to be in on the joke and be happy for my success. I take pains not to burn bridges. Separately, Yankovic needs to negotiate for royalties to the original artists for including their songs within a polka medley, which is considered a cover in copyright law. This created difficulties in recording his first medley "Polkas on 45" since it involved thirteen different royalty schemes, but since then he has established a relationship with most large music publishers to easily secure the license to use their songs.
Many of those parodied by Yankovic have considered this as a rite of passage to show their band has made it in the music industry. Michael Jackson was a big fan of Yankovic, and Yankovic claimed Jackson "had always been very supportive" of his work. When Jackson granted Yankovic permission to do "Fat", Jackson allowed him to use the same set built for his own " Badder " video from the Moonwalker film. This refusal, coming shortly after the commercial failure of Yankovic's movie UHF in theaters, had initially set Yankovic back; he later recognized this as a critical time as, while searching for new parodies, he came across Nirvana , leading to a revitalization of his career with " Smells Like Nirvana ".
Additionally, Cobain described Yankovic as "a musical genius". What ya gonna do? Al in the Box booklet referred to the song's "compound fracture of a title. I'm not sure why, and I've obviously never been very happy about it. The Presidents of the United States of America were so pleased with "Gump", Yankovic's parody of their song "Lump", that they ended the song with his last line instead of their own "And that's all I have to say about that" on the live recording of "Lump" featured on the compilation album Pure Frosting.
In , Yankovic directed the music video for their song " Mixed Up S. Don McLean was reportedly pleased with " The Saga Begins ", a parody of " American Pie ", and told Yankovic that the parody's lyrics sometimes enter his mind during live performances. Additionally, George Lucas loved the song and a Lucasfilm representative told Yankovic, "You should have seen the smile on his face. Chamillionaire stated in an interview, "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy [ It's really an honor when he does that.
It was so big overseas that people were telling me they had heard my version of Weird Al's song. In , Yankovic was initially denied permission to parody Lady Gaga 's " Born This Way " for his song " Perform This Way " for release on a new album, but through his release of the song on YouTube and subsequent spread via Twitter , Lady Gaga and her staff asserted that her manager had made the decision without her input, and Gaga herself gave Yankovic permission to proceed with the parody's release.
Yankovic states that his style parodies have also been met with positive remarks by the original artist. He also noted positive reactions he got through friends his band members have, such as from Frank Black of The Pixies for "First World Problems" and Southern Culture on the Skids for "Lame Claim to Fame", and a similar praise when he encountered Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, and Nash on the street, and was able to play his recently completed "Mission Statement" for him.
One of Yankovic's most controversial parodies was 's " Amish Paradise ", based on " Gangsta's Paradise " by hip-hop artist Coolio , which, in turn, was based on " Pastime Paradise " by Stevie Wonder. Reportedly, Coolio's label gave Yankovic the impression that Coolio had granted permission to record the parody, but Coolio maintains that he never did. While Coolio claimed he was upset, legal action never materialized, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song.
After this controversy, Yankovic has always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied. On his website, Yankovic wrote of this event, "I don't remember what we said to each other exactly, but it was all very friendly. I doubt I'll be invited to Coolio's next birthday party, but at least I can stop wearing that bulletproof vest to the mall. In , Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea told Behind the Music that he was unimpressed and disappointed by Yankovic's song " Bedrock Anthem ", which parodied two of the band's songs.
He was quoted as stating "I didn't think it was very good. I enjoy Weird Al's things, but I found it unimaginative. As Yankovic has always done for his Al TV specials, he edited the footage of a previous Eminem interview and inserted himself asking questions for comic effect. On numerous occasions, Prince refused Yankovic permission to record parodies of his songs.
Yankovic had stated in interviews prior to Prince's death in that he had "approached him every few years [to] see if he's lightened up. Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is a self-proclaimed Yankovic fan, but when Yankovic wished to create a polka medley of Led Zeppelin songs, Page refused. Paul McCartney , also a Yankovic fan, refused Yankovic permission to record a parody of Wings ' " Live and Let Die ", titled "Chicken Pot Pie", because, according to Yankovic, McCartney is "a strict vegetarian and he didn't want a parody that condoned the consumption of animal flesh".
While never recorded for an album, Yankovic did play parts of "Chicken Pot Pie" as part of a larger medley in several tours during the s. In , Yankovic was denied permission to make a video for " Couch Potato ", his parody of Eminem 's " Lose Yourself ".
Yankovic believes that Eminem thought that the video would be harmful to his image. However, after Yankovic had recorded " You're Pitiful ", Blunt's label, Atlantic Records , rescinded this permission, despite Blunt's personal approval of the song. Yankovic released the song as a free download on his MySpace profile, as well as his official website, and plays it in concert, since it was not Blunt himself objecting to the parody.
Yankovic was considering a complete polka medley with only U2 songs, but was denied the rights by the band. Yankovic often describes his live concert performances as "a rock and comedy multimedia extravaganza" [] with an audience that "ranges from toddlers to geriatrics. In , Yankovic toured overseas for the first time. Before , Yankovic and his band had toured only the United States and parts of Canada. Yankovic has invited members of the st Legion on stage during performances of his Star Wars -themed songs " Yoda " and " The Saga Begins ", recruiting members of local garrisons club chapters while on tour.
In appreciation, the st inducted Yankovic as a "Friend of the Legion", in September He performed his first ever European mini-tour, including an appearance at the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in Minehead , England in December Yankovic was picked to perform by the Canadian band Godspeed You! Black Emperor , who curated the festival's lineup.
Greg Harris, the new Cleveland Rock Hall's president and CEO, has a the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's president and CEO in "Greg had good taste and liked all kinds of crazy music. Webster asked where the money was coming from. It's got a weird look to it. Taking life on the road. Music, Film, TV and Political News Coverage. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame President Joel Peresman has responded to Steve Miller's.
Yankovic played three other dates in the UK around his festival appearance before performing a single date in the Netherlands. A second concert film, "Weird Al" Yankovic Live!: As before, video clips apart from those for his own videos and unreleased songs were edited out for legal reasons. On this tour, he performed mostly original songs not parodies and did not use costumes, props, or video screens. Comedian Emo Philips was the opening act. A satire of the television and film industries, also starring Michael Richards , Fran Drescher , and Victoria Jackson , it brought floundering studio Orion their highest test scores since the movie RoboCop.
The snack consists of an overturned Twinkie split open as a makeshift bun, a hot dog , and Easy Cheese put together and dipped in milk before eating. Yankovic has stated that he has switched to using tofu hot dogs since becoming a vegetarian, but still enjoys the occasional Twinkie Wiener Sandwich. These shows typically included some of Yankovic's videos to date and previews of songs on the upcoming A recurring segment of Al TV involves Yankovic manipulating interviews for comic effect. He inserts himself into a previously conducted interview with a musician, and then manipulates his questions, resulting in bizarre and comic responses from the celebrity.
The Weird Al Show was a live action skit-based children's show hosted by Yankovic, airing from September to December on CBS , which featured several actors and bands as guests along with Yankovic and other actors. It was designed to be part of CBS's mandated Educational or Informative programming to teach children morals. The show had a troubled production due to this requirement and the desire by CBS to follow in the success of Pee-wee's Playhouse , leading to the show's cancellation after one episode season.
The entire series was released on DVD by Shout! Factory on August 15, VH1 produced a Behind the Music episode on Yankovic. Also, Coolio 's later disapproval of " Amish Paradise " was played up as a large feud. Much was also made over his apparent lack of a love life, though he got married shortly after the program aired. The episode was updated and re-released in early as part of the "Behind the Music Remastered" series.
Yankovic performed at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards singing a comedic medley of songs based on the themes of several Emmy-nominated shows such as Mad Men and Game of Thrones. Yankovic has done voice-overs for several animated series. Yankovic also had a cameo in a episode, titled " That '90s Show ", during which he records a parody of Homer's grunge hit "Shave Me" titled "Brain Freeze" Homer's song, "Shave Me", was itself a parody of Nirvana 's " Rape Me " making Yankovic one of only a handful of celebrities to appear twice on the show playing themselves.
He is also the announcer of the cartoon's eponymous video game adaptation.
Yankovic had a guest appearance voicing Wreck-Gar , a waste collection vehicle Transformer in the Transformers: Animated cartoon series; [] previously, Yankovic's "Dare to Be Stupid" song was featured in the animated film The Transformers: The Movie , during the sequence in which the Wreck-Gar character was first introduced; as such, the song is referenced in the episode.
He also voiced himself on a Back at the Barnyard episode, and he appeared as a ringmaster who helps the regular characters of Yo Gabba Gabba! In , Al appeared as himself in the Batman: In , he appeared in the fourth season My Little Pony: In , Weird Al joined Michael J. Nelson as a guest on the RiffTrax treatment of Jurassic Park. Eric Appel produced a Funny or Die movie trailer for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story , a fictional biographical film that parodies other films based on musicians; Yankovic played by Aaron Paul is seen hiding his "weirdness" from his parents Gary Cole and Mary Steenburgen , making it big using song parodies with the help of Dr.
Demento Patton Oswalt , falling in and out of love with Madonna Olivia Wilde , and fading into alcoholism and being arrested, at which point his father finally admits he is "weird" as well. Yankovic himself plays a music producer in the short. The series features Al TV -esque fake interviews with movie stars. In October , Yankovic collaborated with the Gregory Brothers to create a music video "Bad Hombres, Nasty Women" shortly after the third debate between Donald Drumpf and Hillary Clinton , with Yankovic singing between autotuned snippets from the candidates.
He also directed the end sequence of 's " Christmas at Ground Zero " an original piece juxtaposing Christmas with nuclear warfare from his Polka Party! Yankovic wrote, directed and starred in the short 3-D movie attraction "Al's Brain: On January 25, , Yankovic announced that he had signed a production deal with Warner Bros. During an interview on Comedy Death-Ray Radio , Yankovic revealed that though Cartoon Network "loved" his script, the network decided that they were no longer intending to produce feature films. Yankovic initially stated that he would instead shop the script around to other potential studios, [] but in revealed that the project had been scrapped as "it was really geared for Cartoon Network" and that he had "cannibalized jokes from that script to use for other projects.
Yankovic stated that the idea for the book was based on his own "circuitous" career path. Yankovic became the first guest editor for Mad Magazine for their rd issue, published in April Weird Al joined the band Hanson in their music video for " Thinking 'bout Somethin' " in which he plays the tambourine. Yankovic was also one of many celebrities who took part in the NOH8 Campaign against Proposition 8 , which banned same-sex marriage in California. Yankovic was approached by a beer company to endorse their product. Yankovic had turned it down because he believed that "a lot of my fans were young and impressionable.
Songs posted to file sharing networks are often misattributed to him because of their humorous subject matter. Often, his surname is misspelled and thus mispronounced as "Yankovich", among other variations. Much to the disdain of Yankovic, these misattributed files include songs that are racist, sexually explicit, or otherwise offensive.
A young listener who had heard several of these offensive tracks by way of a file sharing service confronted Yankovic online, threatening a boycott because of his supposedly explicit lyrics. A list of songs frequently misattributed to Yankovic can be found at The Not Al Page [] and a list of all commercially released songs recorded by Yankovic can be found on his website. Yankovic cites these misattributions as "his only real beef with peer-to-peer file sharing sites":. If you do a search for my name on any one of those sites, I guarantee you that about half of the songs that come up will be songs I had absolutely nothing to do with.
That particularly bothers me, because I really try to do quality work, and I also try to maintain a more-or-less family-friendly image—and some of these songs that are supposedly by me are just, well, vulgar and awful. I truly think my reputation has suffered in a lot of people's minds because of all those fake Weird Al songs floating around the Internet. In an episode of HBO 's Mr. Al, who claims it was the only genuine parody act on himself he has ever seen, told Odenkirk in an email that he was "flattered, in a weird way" and "found it very funny".
Their mission was to "solicit, collect, and raise the necessary money, and to compile the information needed for the application to nominate "Weird Al" Yankovic for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In addition to the preferred method of cash donations, many methods were used to raise money for the cause, such as a live benefit show held April 11, , and selling merchandise on the official website and eBay , including T-shirts, calendars, and cookbooks. Yankovic's application was resubmitted for consideration in , but he was not included among 's inductees.
In an official induction ceremony on August 27, The ceremony was attended by 1, fans. A smaller ongoing effort has been made by fans to have Yankovic perform at the halftime show of a Super Bowl game. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Vocals accordion keyboards theremin. List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic. Retrieved July 24, Archived from the original on July 24, A Funky Form of Flattery".
Archived from the original on October 2, Retrieved August 10, Archived from the original on September 22, Retrieved March 14, Retrieved October 28, Archived from the original on November 10, Archived from the original on November 13, Retrieved November 10, Retrieved September 29, Archived from the original on March 21, He grew up in Lynwood, California a suburb of Los Angeles , although the hospital he was actually born in was in the neighboring town of Downey