On the radioi this morning, I heard a new song by Al - “You’re Pitiful” sung to the tune of “You’re Beautiful”. I was thrilled, thinking a new WAY album was on its way <snerk>. I went to the “Official Website” but couldn’t find anything in the news department about a new album. Anyone know anything?
Yeah. It’s been delayed, but we don’t know how for long.
In the meantime, the track You’re Pitiful has been released and can be downloaded from his site.
The release date was supposed to be June 27, but, like JThunder said, it’s been delayed. I learned today via NPR that the delay is because James Blunt’s record label told Al he couldn’t put the parody on his album. This is the first time he’s had a record label do that to him (the Coolio thing was kind of the opposite situation, I think).
…so he released it for free on his website. 
I hope we find out a release date soon (and that it’s, you know, soon).
Al talked about this on a VH1 special one time. He got permission from Coolio’s record label to make a parody of “Gangsta’s Paradise,” but apparently nobody asked Coolio himself if he minded. Turned out Coolio did mind, and was quite pissed off about the incident.
…tears in my eyes…
“Your dog would rather play fetch by itself, you still live with your mom when you’re 42…”
Hey, this ain’t no parody. It’s real life.
Groovy.
I don’t actually know the song being parodied, which as I get older is more and more the case with each new “Weird Al” album. I’m more into his original songwriting than his parodies. Both his songwriting and more notably his work as producer on the song “Hardware Store” just blow me away.
I actually don’t know if I’ve ever heard a James Blunt song. I googled the James Blunt lyrics and followed along while listening to the Al track. Wow. “You’re Pitiful” could very well be directed at the original songwriting.
Almost three years ago, a “Weird Al” fan began a campaign to get Al a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
To get a Star a celeb must first be nominated. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce reviews about a hundred or so nominations every June. They pick something like 5 of the nominees for approval for a Walk of Fame Star Dedication. Once a nomination is approved, that celeb must then be sponsored- the fee for sponsorship is $15,000.
So, this “Weird Al” fan started a website called weirdalstar.com aimed at raising the sponsorship fee. The fundraising was a 100% fan supported effort. “Weird Al” fans made direct donations or bought merch to raise the $15,000.
I got very involved this spring and organized a “Weird Al” Tribute Show in Los Angeles. Comedy Songwriters performed their own songs as well as each performing a cover of a “Weird Al” song. I turned in a performance of “Midnight Star” from the album In 3-D.
And I’m happy to announce that the full $15,000 was raised in time to submit the nomination this year. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at the end of this month will announce which nominations have been approved. The new Stars will be dedicated sometime in 2007.
So, keep your fingers crossed! and hopefully Al will finally get his very own star on the Walk of Fame!
Thanks everyone for the info. I downloaded the new song and my family & I love it. I will be the first in line to buy the CD, and here’s hoping for a tour.
bienville, have you seen this? It’s a fan-made video for “Hardware Store” done with Legos.
I also tend to like Al’s originals more (I’m horribly out of touch with pop culture, and always have been). “Hardware Store” is one of my favorites, along with “Everything You Know is Wrong” and “Dare to be Stupid.”
Oh my . . .
I can not thank you enough for linking that! That was awesome!
“Hardware Store” is the song I throw at people who scoff at “Weird Al”'s musical abilities. People who refuse to take him seriously generally only know the parodies, and are often surprised to hear that he writes orignal songs as well. Rather than try to argue about the talent that goes into writing a good parody (an argument, though valid, simply not worth making when you’re talking to someone who has made up their mind that a parody is a “rip-off”), I instead pick a song like “Hardware Store” and play it for them.
Thing about “Hardware Store” is, even if you don’t like the song, there’s no way to argue that the work he did as producer was amazing and required an immense amount of talent.
another fan checking in
In iTunes, I have a playlist of nothing buy WAY songs paired with their original inspirations; with a few exceptions, I can’t stand Avril Livigne or whoever recorded “Complicated” and I’m not a huge Nirvana fan.
I’m working on an a cappella arrangement of “Check’s In The Mail” and waiting anxiously for permission to come thru from Al and his company
Hmm . . . do you think that they’ll give him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame because of his commanding lead performance in UHF, or the more subtle artistry of his supporting role in The Naked Gun?
Just in case this is a sincere , though snarky, questioning of his credentials for a Walk of Fame Star, I will note that there are 5 categories for Walk of Fame Star Dedications:
[ul]
[li]Film[/li][li]Television [/li][li]Music / Recording Artists[/li][li]Radio Personality[/li][li]Stage / Theatre[/li][/ul]
Film is but one of the categories. So, in addition to the film credits you listed (though you omitted Spy Hard), in addition to the Al-TV television specials that have recurred on MTV and VH1 over the past 20+ years, in addition to The “Weird Al” Show Saturday Morning television series . . .
. . . as a Recording Artist, with a career spanning nearly a quarter of a century, he has been awarded SIX Platinum (that’s Platinum!!!) Records as well as THREE Gold Records and I might also mention THREE Grammys!!!
Now, flurb, how much more do you feel he must achieve before he is deserving of such notoriety as has already been awarded to Ryan Seacrest?
If he’s denied for the star (which I hope he isn’t), do you get the $15,000 back so you can use it for next year?
I haven’t really followed Weird Al closely, but I like him a lot and wish him well. The last I really heard of him was when he suffered the terrible blow of his parents’ death. Did they ever find out what actually happened?
Pretty sure it was carbon monoxide. Wikipedia says “apparently the victims of carbon monoxide poisoning,” so maybe there still are questions. I dunno.
Faulty heater, I heard.
The Chamber of Commerce only takes the money when the nomination has been approved, but since it’s a fan driven effort they wanted to have everything in place before even submitting the nomination.
If he’s not approved this year, they’ll submit again next year, then the year after, then the year after. The plan that is in place in the unlikely event that it gets to the point where he is rejected year after year ad ridiculum is that the money would be donated to a charity of Al’s choosing- an alternate use of the money explicitedly stated to all who donated.
But this drive is orchestrated by some pretty hardcore fans, so in the face of rejection they will definitely keep submitting the nomination year after year.
I was under the impression that you don’t need permission to parody a song as long as: 1) The original song has already been recorded, and 2) You pay the appropriate royalties to the songwriter/publishing company/anyone else with their hand out. Doesn’t this fall under the same category as recording a cover version? And isn’t parody/satire protected under the 1st Amendment?
AFAIK, you don’t.
Weird Al just likes to, to keep his reputation good with other artists. He does perform the songs in concert though.