And that’s how I feel about Weird Al.
SDMB Murphy’s Law corollary - you go away for a few days, and a perfect thread for you to put your two cents in on starts up right after you leave.
Did Prince not like him, or did he just not want him to do any parodies? Paul McCartney also once turned down a parody, and I haven’t heard anything about any personal animus there. Now, Al has ribbed Prince musically and in interviews about the latter’s stance, but I don’t know that it caused him to be actually disliked.
When Al did parodies, on his albums, he always wanted his parodies to be “fresh” - generally based on newly-released (or soon-to-be-released) singles that had or he expected soon would hit it big. His usual pattern for a new album would be to do 6-8 songs of “original” material - his style parodies - then when had a set of songs that he figured would make for good parodies, to record them quickly and then get the album out (along with a polka, of course). Some parodies he had written before and did in concert just didn’t make it onto an album fast enough to get recorded - “It’s Still Billy Joel to Me”, for instance.
There are three main exceptions to the freshness criteria - “Jurassic Park” based on “MacArthur Park”, “The Saga Begins” based on “American Pie”, and “Ode to a Superhero” based on “Piano Man” - in each case, the parodied song is a timeless classic that most of Al’s aging fans will know (and many of his young fans will check out on Youtube).
Al did two tours of almost all non-parody material, “The Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour” and “The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour”, separated by the pandemic. For each show on each tour, Al and his band did a cover of a different classic rock song - essentially giving his fans a never-to-be-repeated treat at each place he stopped. They couldn’t have had much more than an hour or so per night to rehearse, but they were right on the money for the shows I saw. That takes a lot of talent.
Probably for much the same reasons that comedy movies don’t travel as well.
I love it.
I think Al takes his work very seriously - but probably doesn’t take himself too seriously.
Saw a story one time about someone who put “Craigslist” in the middle of a mixtape (maybe CD, or USB stick) of Doors music after their friend expressed interested in hearing more about the band - and the friend didn’t comment on the fact that there was a style parody in there, it fit so seamlessly.
And, to go back to the thread subject, I tend to be a “small-Hall” advocate, so I wouldn’t put Al in by that criteria. But for the Hall as it is currently constituted, he certainly deserves to be in, though I think in many ways it’s better for him to be outside of it.
I’m not sure. As has been noted, Prince was famously controlling and proprietary about his music, which would suggest that it was more a matter of him not wanting anyone to make funny versions of his songs.
OTOH, there’s also that anecdote of Weird Al being told, by Prince’s management, to not make eye contact with the Purple One at an awards ceremony.
So, who knows?
Agreed. Rolling Stone did an article about him a few years ago, in which one of the topics was just how long it takes him to write his parody lyrics, and how exacting he is on what lyrics work, and what don’t. It may be funny music, but his process is absolutely that of a serious lyricist.
Or else what? I would have to find out! 
Everyone in the row got the same order.
They should have all stared at The Purple One all night
if so, then that, too, suggests that Prince had no particular issue with Weird Al; it was just Prince being Prince.
Al would turn to stone, I assume.
Hopefully this won’t be too off-topic, but since there’s a gathering of Weird Al fans here, it might be a good place to ask my question:
I’m teaching a fourth grade poetry unit, and I like to end the unit with parodies: they’re a super-fun way to get kids to focus on meter and rhyme, both analytically and creatively. The first year I did this unit, I found a parody of Adele’s Hello called Snow. It’s a great parody dealing with snow days from the perspective of a teacher. But it turned out to be terrible for teaching kids, because the original song has a confusing structure and is unfamiliar to kids.
My ideal exemplar would be a parody (Weird Al or someone equally good) that’s squeaky-clean and is a parody of a catchy song that kids know.
“Tacky” is pretty close, but there’s enough shirts-with-hands-on-boobs and Jack-Black-twerking that I don’t feel comfortable showing the video.
Foil is a good candidate, but the “New World Order” jokes might not land with kids, and there’s a bit at the end where he’s given a shot in the neck and abducted that might land the wrong way with the more sensitive kiddos.
I’ve shown them “Bob” before, but it doesn’t follow the rhyme structure of the original song, and since I’m wanting them to get better at meter and rhyme, it won’t serve the right purpose here.
Any suggestions?
Ooh, just remembered This Song is Just Six Words Long, a parody of George Harrison’s Got My Mind Set On You. The Weird Al version doesn’t have a video, but the Harrison video is engaging and clean, and you can’t get a clearer structure than this song. There are hardly any rhymes, but maybe that’s okay.
Dang, I wish I had a cool fourth-grade teacher!
Albuquerque is 11:23, and Trapped in the Drive-Thru is 10:57. In both cases, the length of the song is part of the humor.
My favorite “Weird Al” song is “I Lost on Jeopardy,” which does follow the verse structure of the original song, and has a great video. But I’m pretty sure that @Left_Hand_of_Dorkness 's fourth-graders aren’t going to have a clue who Greg Kihn is, much less the original song.
And more’s the pity, I say. I wouldn’t hang the cliched “under rated” label on him, but “under appreciated” is certainly apt. Those who only know Jeopardy and The Breakup Song are missing out on a pretty decent body of work.
You’re not counting “Yoda”?
There are four main exceptions…
I would kinda put “Yoda” into its own category, since it was a huge hit on Demento when he put it out in 1980 (which was my introduction to both Al and Demento, thanks to a summer camp buddy) but he didn’t put it on either of the first two albums, probably because, again, it didn’t seem too “fresh”. (n.b. Wikipedia says it took that long to get the OKs from Lucas and Davies.)
However, it was still a hit when he played it in concerts, and his fanbase from the very start loved it, so he put it onto Dare To Be Stupid for those fans - and ever since it’s been a concert staple complete with the chant.
Sure - I thought the rest of my post made it clear liking the band or not isn’t the heuristic. It’s partly genre, partly influence, partly gut feel. Weird Al trips none of those for me.
Probably right. The only people I know who like him are middle-aged White men, and they are thin on the ground here.
US comedies travel very well, AFAIK.
Al has also written some original comedy movie themes including Spy Hard and Captain Underpants (the latter theme, if you haven’t heard it, is an absolute banger).
Dolly says she wrote Jolene and I Will Always Love You on the same day. That just blows my mind.
Originally sung by James Ray and released in 1962 fyi.
This is a tough one, simply because “pop songs fourth graders are familiar with” is going to be a small group, and those parodied by Al a helluva lot smaller. And those that are “squeaky clean” even smaller. I’d considered “Word Crimes” which is better than the original, but the original is pretty unpleasant and Al included the word “spastic” without realizing its offensive origins.
Actually, maybe you should just go with the Captain Underpants theme song…
I’m positive Al has done an interview or some other bit where he deconstructs the whole incident. ISTR it involves him trolling the fuck out of Prince, like by standing up and loudly yelling for Prince to come sit next to him. Or something.
Heck, the song is about songwriting, and includes a non-rhyming line about finding a good rhyme here…
You mean White and Nerdy (you missed an obvious Weird Al joke there).
My suggestion - Eat It. Michael Jackson is still probably ubiquitous enough to be known by 4th graders; they would probably enjoy the original video, and then, of course, the Weird Al version. My first thought was Fat, but the video (and lyrics) do a lot of fat-shaming
Wonderful! 65% inspired by “Inca Roads,” 25% from various songs on Apostrophe, and the rest is miscellaneous (including a brief nod to Zappa’s own loving parodies of doo-wop back on Absolutely Free and the like).
Anyway…Weird Al does belong in the R&R HoF.