The 1979 parody cover Weird Al Yankovic recorded in a California university bathroom
To think that Weird Al Yankovic has been spreading his strangeness around through song for half a century now is really quite an unbelievable feat. Give the man all the awards going.
Indeed, to be able to come up with 50 years’ worth of rip-roaring parodies is the testament to a true creative genius – but then again, it’s not as if he’s ever been devoid of inspiration to take from. The world, from music to politics to film, just keeps producing more comedy gold as the decades go on. He’ll never be in short supply of something to make fun of.
That was clearly something that a highly perceptive Yankovic realised from an early age, given that he started out on his parodic career while he was still a student. Like many young people, however, actually putting the work in to get a degree while he was at the California Polytechnic State University was not really his main priority.
Instead, the future songster’s time was taken up mainly by his stint on the student radio station, where he would often spoof and riff off on the biggest hits of the time. As it happened, in the late ‘70s, the Knack’s ‘My Sharona’ was making waves in the charts. But noticing the titular similarity to his favourite type of sausages, Yankovic decided to take a different route of appreciation.
Coming up with the comical ‘My Bologna’, Yankovic and his friends began to play the song around the campus and local venues, much to the delight of their friends and newfound fans. Yet quickly, the comedian realised that his talents needed to be heard by a wider audience, and so did what anyone would do in that situation: he went to the bathroom.
Listen, get your mind out the gutter – we’re not about to get crude with this. In fact, did you realise that the space is actually “an acoustically perfect studio”, according to Yankovic, as he discovered when he recorded the song in the bogs opposite his student radio station studio? Maybe we should listen to the expert on this.
His trip to the toilet actually paid dividends, as after sending the tape of ‘My Bologna’ to esteemed radio presenter and novelty song aficionado Dr Demento, he never really looked back. With the song now a cult hit, Demento passed the song to Capitol Records, and after a chance meeting between Yankovic and the real lead singer of the Knack, he was well on his way.
After honouring Bologna sausages and ‘70s power pop, Yankovic was unstoppable in his efforts to take over the world, one parody at a time. Oddly enough, he did always have an affinity to meat-based subjects, which didn’t always go down well with everyone – just look at Paul McCartney – but either way, ‘My Bologna’ was the very beginning.
It just makes you consider all the sliding doors moments that the music world is full of. If the Knacks didn’t release ‘My Sharona’, if Bologna sausages were never invented, if Yankovic didn’t go into that university bathroom, the combined comedy and music worlds might never have been the same. It really doesn’t bear thinking about.
