Great American Novelty: 'The Essential Weird Al Yankovic'

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IN 1976, AN accordion-playing teenager and self-proclaimed geek from Lynwood, Calif., sent in a tape of home-recorded parody songs to Dr. Demento, the Los Angeles radio DJ who spun such novelty fare as "Fish Heads" and "Star Trekkin'" on his weekly show. The young songwriter, named Alfred Yankovic, had written a tune called "Belvedere Cruisin'," about his parents' Plymouth, as well as a parody of "Jesus Christ Superstar." Demento played the former on the air, which no doubt thrilled the boy.

More than 33 years later, there are surely geeky teenagers all over the country sending their own homemade songs to "Weird Al" Yankovic, who has become pop music's most durable and beloved parodist. In fact, he has evolved into something of a national treasure, a patron saint of pop goofs, and his rubbery smirk, long hair and wiry frame are as iconic to certain audiences as Madonna's pointy bustier, Kurt Cobain's tattered sweater or Flea's stuffed-animal pants.

Beginning with his career-making "My Bologna" in 1979, Yankovic's parodies have been generally good-natured, more silly than satirical. In his world, there's nothing funnier than a bad pun or an accordion polka, and while some of Yankovic's songs can get a bit dark ("The Night Santa Went Crazy"), his send-ups are mostly harmless. He lobs spitballs rather than firebombs, but at his best, he creates amazingly sustained works of pop culture criticism. His epic "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" is almost as sublimely humorous as R. Kelly's original.

Oddly, "The Essential 'Weird Al' Yankovic" doesn't include "My Bologna," despite its historical importance.

A parody of The Knack's "My Sharona," it so impressed the band that they told their label to sign Yankovic. This new two-disc, 38-track retrospective instead begins with "Another One Rides the Bus," a Queen parody that Yankovic recorded live on Dr. Demento's show. It's one of his rawest songs, with his accordion mimicking that signature riff against an orchestra of armpit farts. It's a fine and funny introduction to Yankovic's skewed sensibility, which can deflate even the most self-serious pop star.

Yankovic is no stranger to greatest-hits packages and retrospectives. His first appeared in 1989, less than a decade after his first album. In the 20 years since then, he has released several compilations, including food- and TV-themed collections and a four-disc box set. But "The Essential" is not only his first hits package in 15 years, it's also the first one that comes across as a real career overview, with a mission of repositioning Yankovic as a pop force as creative and as powerful as those he routinely mocks.

Offering an oddball alternative history of the last three decades of pop culture, the new collection (which is part of Sony/Legacy's Essential series and was overseen by Yankovic himself) covers a lot of ground. "Polkas on 45" was one of his first and arguably best polka mash-ups of contemporary and classic rock hits, volleying anarchically from Devo to Iron Butterfly to The Who in just four minutes.

In addition to his parodies of particular songs, he also recorded send-ups of specific bands, showing a careful ear for mimicry as well as deep affection for pop-star idiosyncrasies. "Dare to Be Stupid" nails the nerd imagery and stiff rhythms of Devo, but "Dog Eat Dog" so perfectly captures David Byrne's warbly vocals and obsession with mundane minutiae that it could be a real Talking Heads song. Or at least a cover.

Yankovic's enduring subject — the equivalent of Springsteen's beautiful losers or Steinbeck's itinerant farmers — are white middle-class nerds, and the milieu seems inexhaustible. The recent "White & Nerdy" appropriates Chamillionaire's "Ridin' Dirty" to delineate a lifestyle based on Dungeons & Dragons, MC Escher posters and "Minesweeper." It's a geek anthem — affectionate, silly, but also celebratory.

Yankovic's parodies, however, are only as good as his central pun, and "The Essential" includes more than a few clunkers, including "Bedrock Anthem," a lazy mash-up of The Flintstones and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and "Gump," a tired take on "Forrest Gump" and the Presidents of the United States of America's "Lump."

Still, even when he's conceptually lacking, he's musically exacting: "The Saga Begins" summarizes the plot of "Star Wars: Episode 1: The Saga Begins" using "American Pie." Yankovic never really engages with his subject matter, which is infamously ripe for parody, but there is some humor in hearing Don McLean's lofty pop epic refashioned as a vehicle for horrible sci-fi.

Ultimately, "The Essential" isn't incredibly essential. There are too many great moments missing here — not just "My Bologna" but witty originals like the cheerily apocalyptic "Christmas at Ground Zero" and slasher send-up "Nature Trail to Hell (in 3-D)."

Thirty years into an unlikely career, Yankovic has outlived so many of his subjects to reach a point where his catalog is far too extensive and far too complex to be summed up so neatly. Pop culture needs him as much as he needs pop culture.

Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner
Photo courtesy Volcano Records