This week, I spoke to the "father monster" of the parody, "Weird Al" Yankovic, who made waves this week with his Lady Gaga spoof, "Perform This Way." The single is off of his long-delayed album, Alpocolypse. With more than six million views on YouTube it's a surprising factoid that the track almost didn't happen entirely. "The Gaga Saga," as the singer described it on his blog, resulted in the eventual OK from Ms. Gaga, but not without some help from fans on Twitter and YouTube.
According to Yankovic, Gaga's management were giving him the run around and refused to give him approval to move forward with the song and video. But, fan support from Twitter teamed with the viral success of the song on Youtube, got the attention of Gaga resulting in her granting permission to release his version of "Born This Way", the title track of his new album released last week.
Yankovic rose to fame in the 80s for his parodies of songs making the rounds on top 40 radio and the ridiculous music videos that followed. What's the secret to his success? According to Weird Al, in order to create a great parody it must "be topical or timely, also it be funny even if you haven't heard the original, it's gotta be as funny in the third verse as the first verse."
The music isn't the only thing Yankovic has had in the works. He also released a children's book earlier this year entitled When I Grow Up, drawing inspiration from Dr. Seuss and other notable children's authors. And while Yankovic branched out into writing don't expect a sequel to "UHF," Yankovic's 1989 foray into film -- although he wouldn't mind gracing the silver screen in the future.
You can follow along with Weird Al and the rest of his two million followers at @AlYankovic on Twitter.
Originally posted on CBSNews.com/WhatsTrending
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Follow Shira Lazar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shiralazar
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shira-lazar/weird-al-gaga_b_886890.html
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