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rob morrison5 very obscure weird al parody songs written by geoffrey on 04/14/08
as a kid, i was a huge “weird” al yankovic fan — i’d say i know about 90% of his total song catalog. whenever i hear a “new” weird al parody for the first time, it’s almost always an internet mislabeling of a stupid morning radio show parody. however, there are a handful of truly obscure weird al songs out there you might not have heard before.
here are 5 weird al rarities, many of which are… well, strange.
1. “pacman” - a parody of “tax man” by the beatles (fan made video)
this was a prehistoric weird al parody from the early 80’s, when pac-mania swept the nation, like a yellow ball thingy sweeping a maze in order to eat dots. al didn’t really cash in the way buckner & garcia did with pacman fever. guess al just didn’t catch that fever badly enough. *pacman death sound*
2. “green eggs and ham” - parody of “numb” by u2
sometimes al can’t get the rights to release a song on an album, so he sings it in concert instead. here’s a good example, featuring al doing an impression of the edge… and getting licked on the face by two girls at once. now that’s something you don’t (care to?) see every day.
3. “gee, i’m a nerd” - parody of “free as a bird” by the beatles
many of the songs weird al parodied have fallen into obscurity (”who’s johnny,” “zoot suit riot,” etc.), so this weird al parody is doubly obscure because it was only performed in concert and is a parody of that ‘new’ frankenstein beatles song assembled and released in the mid-90’s.
this video features two more concert-only parodies: “laundry day” (”come out and play” by the offspring) and “chicken pot pie” (”live and let die” by paul mccartney).
4. “it’s still billy joel to me” - parody of “it’s still rock n roll to me” by billy joel (fan made video)
weird al doesn’t take a lot of pot shots at other musicians, and when he does, it’s usually sanctioned/enjoyed by the musician being targeted (ex. weird al asked permission from kurt kobain to make “smells like nirvana”). this early recording was probably not enjoyed by the piano man, if he ever actually heard it.
al calls billy joel’s music “lame,” “trash,” and “mindless pap.” so awesome.
5. “patterns polka”
this was created for the PBS sketch show square one and may be one of the strangest things i’ve ever seen. check out all the green screen effects, monty python animation and of course, the polka-ing. put all that together with a message about math and you’ve got a video that truly lives up to mr. yankovic’s monicker.
filed under music: 80s, music: 90's, novelty
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Chris Apr 14
Numb features the edge, not bono.
geoffrey Apr 14
thanks for the catch, chris. i changed it.
Alex Apr 14
Hah, wow. I almost didn’t believe you with the Pac-Man song, so many songs are mislabeled on the net. The only one of these that I had heard was “Billy Joel.” Nice find!