Whatever

Weird Al's 10 Best Forgotten Parodies

It's hard to remember sometimes that "Weird Al" Yankovic has been honing his craft for more than 30 years now, bringing us masterful parodies of pop music for so long that he's outlived many of his onetime subjects. He has a new album called Mandatory Fun due today and is in the midst of releasing eight music videos in eight days on YouTube.

Since we're in the middle of another Weird Al year, it seems appropriate to look back on his massive back catalog and remember some of the best parodies that may not have stuck in the public's consciousness in the way "Eat It" or "Amish Paradise" did.

10. "Another One Rides the Bus" (Queen) One of Al's first big hits was this quaint Queen parody. Even though it's not as accomplished as his later works, it's pretty interesting to see how his act has evolved over the years from these early days.

9. "Theme from Rocky XIII (The Rye or the Kaiser)" (Survivor) One of the biggest films around when Al released 1984's "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D was Rocky III. Of course, we all remember Survivor's epic theme song for the film, "Eye of the Tiger," but few remember Al's parody. He was way ahead of the curve, not only in mocking the film's excessive sequels, but also predicting that Rocky would one day own a restaurant (as seen in Rocky Balboa years after the release of the song).

8. "Yoda" (The Kinks) One of the most famous "Weird Al" parodies is "The Saga Begins," but this parody of the Kinks' "Lola" shows wasn't the first time he had written a song about Star Wars.

7. "Dog Eat Dog" (The Talking Heads) One of Al's greatest assets is his ability to parody a style, rather than purely adapting a certain song. This brilliant take on the Talking Heads works because it's an Al original in their style, yet it's so dead-on that it's hard to believe it's not David Byrne.

6. "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long" (George Harrison) My undying love for George Harrison's version of "Got My Mind Set on You" might have a lot to do with why I love this parody, but it's another forgotten classic from one of Al's bigger records, 1988's Even Worse.

5. "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" (Dire Straits) UHF is an unfortunately extremely underrated film, and this excellent Dire Straits parody, which even features guitarist Mark Knopfler, comes midway through the film in one of the oddest dream sequences in movie history.

List continues on the next page.

KEEP THE HOUSTON PRESS FREE... Since we started the Houston Press, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Houston, and we'd like to keep it that way. With local media under siege, it's more important than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" program, allowing us to keep offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food and culture with no paywalls.
Corey Deiterman