Weird Al Yankovic is a popular comedian, singer, and songwriter who has sold more than 12 million studio albums worldwide.
He is mainly popular for his parodies and original songs as it managed to reach mainstream entertainment which boosted his career. His original songs are mainly pastiches of work from other acts and polka medlies with other well-known music.
With the success of Weird Al’s music parodies, it managed to move his type of style into popular culture and even managed to collaborate with the original artists of the music he was parodying with.
It also managed to earn him multiple Grammy awards and most of his albums became gold and platinum records within the United States.
Aside from music, Yankovic also starred in the cult classic UHF(1998) and hosted “The Weird Al Show” which was able to show off his talent as an actor.
If you want to know more about the artist then keep reading as we’ll show you all about his career, personal life, and even net worth.
Childhood and Early Life
Weird Al Yankovic or Alfred Matthew Yankovic was born on October 23, 1959, in Downey, California.
His father, Nick Yankovic, was a World War 2 veteran who moved into the United States after serving his time in the war and his mother, Mary Elizabeth, was an Italian English American.
When Weird al turned six, a salesman who was working for a local music school managed to convince his family to enroll their son into enrolling over there to learn music.
His parents made him choose the accordion rather than a guitar as they thought it was the instrument that will revolutionize rock music.
The young Al then fell in love with rock and roll music and also idolized music performers like Elton John and Spike Jones.
He then went to “Lynwood High School” and graduated as a valedictorian in 1975. He then proceeded to go to college at “California Polytechnic State University” where he got a degree in architecture.
Early Career
When Weird Al was 16, he made a compilation of parodies and original songs and placed them all in CDs.
He then gifted it to Dr. Demento, a comedian and radio personality, who was visiting his school at that time. The songs were then able to get featured in his radio show.
By college, he worked in their campus radio station as a disk jockey where he got his nickname “Weird Al”, which he kept it and made it as his stage name. He then kept making more parody songs to popular music even after college.
He made several parody songs from the band Queen and was then followed by a parody of “I Love Rock and Roll” called “I Love Rocky Road” which managed to get into the “Top 40 Radio Chart”.
Due to the popularity of his last song, Weird Al was able to get a record deal from the label “Scotti Brother Records” where he was able to release a debut album in 1983 named “Weird Al” Yankovic’.
Becoming a Music And Comedy Sensation
By 1984, he then released his next album, which he named “Weird Al Yankovic in 3-D” which contained the breakthrough song of his career “Eat It”.
It was a parody of “Beat It”, Michael Jackson cult classic song. The song became his one of his highest-charting single and was even featured in MTV.
He was then able to release the first-ever comedy record released in a CD format called “Don’t dare to be stupid”.
It had hit songs like “Like a Surgeon” which was a parody of madonna’s “Like a Virgin”. The album later became certified gold by the RIAA and then proceeded to become platinum by 2003.
The album “Polka Party” was released but it evidently became a flop as it wasn’t able to impress his fans. But in 1988, he managed to make a comeback by creating the platinum album “Even Worse”. It had hit songs like “Fat”, a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Bad”.
Yankovic then continued releasing more album throughout his career like “Off the Deep End”(1992), “Bad Hair Day”(1993), and “Straight Outta Lynwood” which contained the hit song “White and Nerdy”.
He also recently released a medley for the musical “Hamilton” called “The Hamilton Polka Online” which was able to get into the “Billboard Digital Songs Sale Chart”.
Starring in Moveis and Television
Aside from his music career, Weird Al also went to have a career in television by hosting in a few shows like “The Weird Al Show” and also appearing in many cartoons and live television shows like “Drunk History” and “30 Rock”.
He also wrote and starred in the film “UHF” which became a huge success.
Awards and Achievements
With the vast success that Weird Al was able to get throughout his career, he was able to get nominated in the Grammy Awards and even won four of them.
These awards included “Best Comedy Album” and “Best Comedy Recording”. He was also given a star in the “Hollywood Walk of Fame” in 2018.
Net Worth of Weird Al Yankovic
As the artist has had a lot of success and awards under his belt. He was able to accumulate a total net worth of $16 million dollars. This includes his book, TV career, movies, and music sold.
Personal Life and Family
Weird Al is happily married to Suzanne Krajewski, a marketing executive in 20th Century Fox. They’ve been wedded since 2001 and they had a daughter back in 2003 named Nina. They’re currently living together in Los Angeles.
Yankovic also classifies himself as a vegetarian but has lately told the press that sometimes he cheats on his diet when there’s good food lying around during their tours.
Tragedy has also struck upon the artist when his parents both died in an accidental carbon monoxide poisoning in their home in California. He still continued on with his tours as a way to distract himself from the loss of his family.
