Who Is “Weird Al” Yankovic?When TV viewers tuned in to
The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder on April 21, 1981, they saw something amazing, unexpected, and . . .
weird.
As the talk show host welcomed his musical guest, the audience saw a barefoot twenty-one-year-old man with curly hair, thick glasses, a red shirt, and yellow, blue, and orange striped pants. Stranger still, the man had a large, boxy instrument—an accordion—strapped to his body.
The man with the accordion was introduced as “Weird Al” Yankovic, and—although he had released his first song in 1979—this was the first time he’d ever played his music on national television.
The host and audience didn’t know what to think as Al squeezed his accordion and sang about riding on a crowded, stinky bus. The lyrics described how his fellow passengers became stranger with each bus stop. This performance of “Another One Rides the Bus” was made even weirder by a man in a black suit sitting behind the singer. As the song went on, the man, Al’s friend Jon Schwartz, beat a large accordion case with his hands in time with the song. Occasionally, he blew a whistle or squeezed a bike horn that hung around his neck.
The song sounded familiar to some viewers. While the lyrics were unusual, the music itself was the same as a song called “Another One Bites the Dust.” The tune had been released the previous year by the popular British rock and roll band Queen.
Al’s songs are what’s known as parody, an art form that borrows from the original version to create something new. In Al’s parody songs, the music is similar (sometimes even the same!) but he writes new lyrics meant to make the song funny. In Al’s talk show performance, the original song line “Hey, I’m gonna get you, too,” became, “Hey, he’s gonna sit by you.” Parodies are meant to be playful, silly, and entertaining.
After Al’s performance, viewers of the show thought he was a joke. How could they have known that the musician would go on to have a career that has lasted more than forty years?
In the years since that TV appearance, Weird Al Yankovic has performed thousands of concerts. He’s won five Grammy Awards, the highest honor in music. He’s released fourteen studio albums that have sold more than twelve million copies combined. Beyond that, Al has inspired thousands of musicians and comedians. He accomplished great things by being
himself...and by always being a little bit weird.
Copyright © 2026 by Wes Locher; illustrated by Robert Squier. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
