A list of Weird Al "Style Parody" songs- songs he's written that don't directly parody another song (www.weirdalstar.com)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/music@lemmy.world

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It doesn't include "First World Problems," which was very much a sort of song The Pixies would have written in terms of the music style.

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[-] zecg@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago

Thanks, I'll peruse this. Dare To Be Stupid is my favorite song by both him and one of top Devo songs.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

I believe Mark Mothersbaugh called it "more Devo than Devo."

[-] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

He's so good at that. I know Presidents started replacing the final line of Lump with that of Gump, I wouldn't be surprised if other bands do similar things. Of course that's a parody, not a pastiche, but still.

[-] CuriousRefugee@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

Don McLean has definitely substituted the chorus from The Saga Begins when he's doing live shows

[-] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

That song is so good that it makes me want to watch that movie again, which is quite the feat.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Mark Knopfler only allowed him to parody Money for Nothing if Knopfler himself played the guitar solo on the recording. So it's a very odd case of a parody song with the guy who wrote and performed the original song playing on the track.

Also, Greg Kihn is in the I Lost on Jeopardy video.

[-] tunetardis@lemmy.ca 18 points 6 days ago

Last time I was on a road trip, the 10-minute-long "Stuck In The Drive-Thru" came up on my stream and about halfway through, my daughter in the back seat goes "Who is this?!? It's epic!" I think she's been hooked on Weird Al ever since?

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 6 days ago

I thought that was making fun of R. Kellys Trapped In The Closet

[-] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

It is, that one's a straight-up parody, not a pastiche like the songs in the link.

[-] tunetardis@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 days ago

Oh I didn't know that! I will have to check out the original.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

That's because a lot of these are "style parodies" where he parodies the style of a certain band.

Everything You Know Is Wrong is famously a style parody of They Might Be Giants.

Once you hear the style you can't unhear it. He nails TMBG uncannily.

[-] CetaceanNeeded@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

The only way Everything You Know Is Wrong could get any better is if TMBG did a cover of it.

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

A fair number of the original artists have been outlasted by Al, but I deeply wish we could get an album of them covering Weird Al's style covers. I think TMBG would be up for it, and I suspect you could get Trent Reznor to cover "Germs."

[-] SlamWich@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

I really like 'Albuquerque' I don't believe it's directly parodying a song, and if it is lmao

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Not directly, but as the page says, it parodies Dick's Automotive by The Rugburns. Which is weird, because it's already a funny song.

[-] ChronosTriggerWarning@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

"What I do have it's this one box of starving, crazed weasels."

".....ok. I'll take that."

[-] So_zetta_slowpoke@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

"Mission Statement" off of Mandatory Fun is totally a style parody of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Pretty funny too, because it takes the sound of a free love hippie group from the 60's and uses it to ramble off a bunch of corporate buzz words.

I could see it being a straight parody of their song "Carry On", but Al usually sticks a lot closer to the original arrangement when doing song parodies.