Weird Al Yankovic's High School Band
Alfred Yankovic had dreams of joining a rock band with the cool kids. Unsurprisingly, he was rebuffed: the cool kids didn’t need an accordion player. There were no hipsters to reclaim the instrument in those dark ages, he claims; “I was the original hipster.”
Fearing himself resigned to a career of bar mitzvahs and weddings, Yankovic recorded a ballad to the family car on his cassette machine and sent it to his hero, Dr. Demento — LA’s legendary novelty radio personality. The song was terrible, he admits, but a high school boy playing the accordion and swooning over a Plymouth was just weird enough for the doctor to put it on air. The rest is history.
Kurt’s interview with "Weird Al" Yankovic will air in next week’s show.
CORRECTION: This article previously stated that Weird Al is the son of Frank Yankovic, the late polka musician. They became friends and collaborated, but were not related.
Whether you're in school now, or graduated when "Blue Suede Shoes" was on the charts, we want to hear your high school band's best original song. And we're teaming up with Andrew W.K. and Thao Nguyen to share it with the world.
→ Send us your song and hear the other entries
