He's still Weird

An '80s MTV song parodist? If there ever was a recipe for fried flash-in-the-pan, Weird Al Yankovic should have been it.

Amazingly, two-plus decades after sending up Michael Jackson with Eat It, the world's funkiest accordionist has proven more durable than any of the acts he sends up.

He surfed genres through the '90s and into the new millennium, spoofing grunge (Smells Like Nirvana), alternative (Gump, to the tune of Presidents Of The United States' Lump), and R&B/hip-hop (the Coolio take-off Amish Paradise).

And he has just put out his highest-charting single -- White And Nerdy (a spoof of rapper Chamillionaire's Ridin') from his new album, Straight Outta Lynwood.

The single hit No. 9 on the Billboard charts last week, three spots higher than Eat It.

Add a video, featuring "my white and nerdy celebrity friends," such as Seth Green, Donny Osmond and Judy Tenuta, that's been on YouTube's most-watched.

But in some ways, it's harder than ever to be Weird Al. For starters, try finding a song so well known, everybody gets the joke.

"It's definitely something I've noticed," Yankovic says.

"The music scene is compartmentalized. I don't think there are as many superstars or crossover hits these days."

R&B does sell in the millions. So along with Ridin', Straight Outta Lynwood has a takeoff of Usher (Confessions Part III) and Trapped In The Drivethrough, a clever 10-minute parody of R. Kelly's equally indulgent Trapped In The Closet.

As for rock, there is Canadian Idiot, a spoof of Green Day's American Idiot -- and a song he admits isn't getting much airplay with its curling references and "zeds."

In the '80s, Yankovic says, "I basically put out an album a year because I didn't want people to forget me."

Getting the permission of the spoofees remains an occasional stumbling block to being Weird Al.

This time around, James Blunt withheld his (Yankovic still plans to play, You're Pitiful, his spoof of You're Beautiful in concert).

"And I was going to do a Daniel Powter parody on the new album, with his song Bad Day. And he said 'No.' And then literally the day before we went into the studio to record White And Nerdy, we got a call saying he changed his mind and he wanted to do it after all. And I had to inform him the train had left the station."

On the other hand, "it's actually quite a coup that I was able to get Led Zeppelin to let me and my band do that little bit of Black Dog in Trapped In The Drive Through. They're famous for not letting people do anything with their music.

"The coolest thing about my life is I'm able to meet and befriend and sometimes work with people I've admired since I was a kid. It boggles my mind Alice Cooper calls me up to do a charity concert with him, and I still remember watching him onstage through binoculars when I was 16-years-old.

"You just want to timetrip and tell your 14-year-old self 'You're not gonna believe what's gonna happen in 20 years.' "
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