Five years elapsed between 2006’s “Straight Outta Lynwood” and last month’s “Alpocalypse,” the longest stretch between “Weird Al” Yankovic albums since the song parodist started sending up popular songs and artists with his 1983 debut album.
Yankovic was far from sitting in semi-retirement. In the time between albums, he wrote a best-selling children’s book, played more than 250 concerts and directed a 3-D short film called “Al’s Brain,” all while releasing a handful of tunes through the Internet and iTunes. But he didn’t feel he was quite ready to release a new studio album until Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” came along earlier this year.
People had been suggesting Yankovic, who will perform Tuesday at Meadow Brook Music Festival in Rochester Hills, take on Gaga since she ascended to her throne as pop music’s new Queen of Odd.
“It was to the point where I kind of didn’t want to do a Lady Gaga parody,” says Yankovic on the phone last week from his home in Los Angeles. “Part of comedy is surprising people and doing the unexpected, and if everybody is telling you you should do something, it makes me more inclined to not do it.”
Besides, he had tried taking on a couple of Gaga’s songs — “people were saying I should change ‘Paparazzi’ to ‘Pepperoni,'” Yankovic said — but nothing stuck until “Born This Way” hit the radio in February.
Toying with the chorus and the melody, Yankovic came up with “Perform This Way,” which became a commentary on Gaga’s entire outrageous persona.
Still, he had his reservations. “Born This Way” is an empowering anthem for gay rights, and Yankovic didn’t want to appear insensitive by making fun of it. He came up with a compromise; he would donate proceeds from the single to the Human Rights Campaign, “and I thought that would counterbalance whatever negative impact the parody might have,” he says.
No matter. The song and video were a hit both with Gaga and her fans; and “Alpocalypse” debuted at No. 9 on last week’s Billboard Top 200 albums chart, Yankovic’s best chart position ever. “Alpocalypse” also contains riffs on songs by Taylor Swift (her “You Belong With Me” becomes the celebrity-skewering anthem “TMZ”) and Miley Cyrus (“Party in the USA” is now “Party in the CIA”).
Yankovic said he has no real parameters for what or whom he lampoons, but he tends to stick to songs that have been smash hits on the Billboard charts. Thus, no Insane Clown Posse parodies, at least yet.
“If ICP ever does have a Top 10 hit,” he says, “they would certainly be fun to do.”
For “Alpocalypse,” Yankovic did what he always does: He came up with 12 ideas, wrote 12 songs, recorded all 12 songs and put them on the album. “There’s no scraps, no leftovers when I do an album,” he says. “There’s not really a whole lot of rarities floating around. When I die, there’s not going to be a vault of unreleased material.”
Yankovic, 51, has been pop music’s foremost parodist for nearly 30 years, taking on everyone from Nirvana to Madonna. His efforts haven’t yet been enough for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to take notice, but he’s not exactly sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.
“If they ever do come calling, I would be extremely honored and flattered; but as a realist, I frankly don’t think that’s ever going to happen,” he says.
That hasn’t stopped his fans from trying, and hardcore Yankovic loyalists have petitioned the Rock Hall to get them to notice the funnyman with the unmistakable brown curls on his head.
“The fact that they’re doing that and they care so much,” Yankovic says, “I think actually means more to me than being in the Rock Hall.”
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