Top Ten "Weird Al" Yankovic Style Parodies
According to Al, a "style parody" is an original song intended to imitate another artist's style without parodying any one particular song. Al has been open about which artists he tries to imitate in a particular song. Feel free to add to this list; if you do, please tell me who Al is trying to imitate.
One of my favorite Al songs. It's his attempt to imitate the style of Frank Zappa. It's probably the most musically complex thing he's done.
Oh yes. I love this song.
"Weird Al" sings about a man who loves frivolous lawsuits... in the style of Rage Against the Machine. Just goes to show that anger can be put to good use.
This song came about after "Weird Al" thought about what it would sound like if Jim Morrison sang about the mundane stuff you can buy on Craigslist. He even got Ray Manzarek (the Doors' keyboardist) to play organ.
This song is Al's imitation of Brian Wilson's work on Pet Sounds and Smile. It's sort of like a mixture of God Only Knows, Our Prayer, Do You Like Worms, Good Vibrations, and Heroes and Villains (without sounding exactly the same, of course).
It's an imitation of the long, heavily worded ballads Cat Stevens used to do. It's about a guy who sees a girl and has a whole conversation with her in his head - just from reading facial cues.
One of his most prominent style parodies. It's his attempt to imitate the sound of Devo. Mark Mothersbaugh said that he was actually quite impressed by how well Al imitated their style.
An imitation of The White Stripes, Al sings about how unbelievably tough Charles Nelson Reilly is. Basically, they're Chuck Norris jokes without Chuck Norris.
As the title suggests, it's a parody of Bob Dylan (more specifically drawing from Subterranean Homesick Blues and Bob Dylan's 115th Dream). The whole thing is done in palindromes (except for the harmonica solos - there's nothing you can do about that).
It's about Ron Popeil, who was the king of infomercial products for years. He imitates the B-52s (and does a really good job of it); he even got Ron's sister Lisa to do backing vocals. (Lisa has also been his vocal coach for several years and has sang on some of his other songs since then).
Al sings about a guy in the neighborhood who bought a brand new television - and it's ridiculously huge. It's supposed to imitate IRS-era R.E.M., particularly the stuff on Murmur and Reckoning.
Thanks for adding this one. I like it too. My favorite line is when he talks about angry he is that his barista didn't even leave a design in the foam on his latte (How dare he! ).
It's in the style of The Pixies. I just love how Al sounds just like Black Francis.
A style parody of Nine Inch Nails. Considering that the song is supposed to have a paranoid atmosphere, I think it suits the theme well.
This song is an imitation of Crosby, Stills, & Nash, particularly drawing from the songs Carry On and Suite Judy Blue Eyes. The lyrics consist of nonsensical corporate office room jargon, which is ironic considering that it's supposed to sound like one of the top hippie bands of the late 60s.
The song is a stylistic parody of Oingo Boingo. Appropriately, the time signature constantly changes.
A stylistic imitation of Bob Marley. He thought that it would be very ironic to hear someone like Bob, who has a reputation for being anti-materialistic, singing about consumer culture.
This song is meant to resemble Prince, particularly the song Let's Go Crazy. Since Al was infamously never allowed to parody one of Prince's songs, this is the closest thing we have to an actual Prince parody.
This is a sweet, mellow, acoustic number... about a serial killer. It's meant to sound like James Taylor, assuming that he did a collab with Charles Manson.
This song is a stylistic imitation of They Might Be Giants. He wanted it to a more general parody with several references thrown in rather than based on one or two specific songs.
This song is meant to imitate ACDC. I was unhappy with the final take of this song because he sang it in a key that was too high for his vocal range.
The song is meant to sound like the early work of Elvis Costello.
The song is supposed to be an imitation of Beck, specifically the album Midnite Vultures, although because of the title, many people have told him that they thought it was a Prince song.
This song is an imitation of the Ben Folds Five. To give it some extra authenticity, Al brought in Ben Folds himself to play piano on the track.
Sorry, but this doesn't count. It's an actual parody (of "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys). A style parody is a song written by Weird Al himself that is meant to imitate the sound of another artist.
Inspired by Weezer. It's one of his most bittersweet songs, describing an aspiring actor who worked hard to become a star only to never get anywhere and be stuck in a dead end job as a tour guide on the Disneyland Jungle Cruise. You can tell that he's really acting well, smiling and entertaining people while he doesn't feel like smiling inside at all.
He does a really good job of imitating The Police - "Bermuda" Schwartz (his drummer) in particular did a great job at imitating Stewart Copeland's style.