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Weird Al: The Book
What do you do when someone's sold more comedy recordings than any other artist in history? How do you commemorate over three decades' worth of live concerts and groundbreaking music videos? And what's a fitting way to celebrate a slew of Grammy-award-winning albums and singles of brilliant satire? You write a book - a big, fat, career retrospective book, that's what!
This comprehensive illustrated tribute to the undisputed king of pop-culture parody, "Weird Al" Yankovic, covers his songs, videos, performances, and life story in words and pictures, including phot captions, tweets, lists and an introduction by the man himself.
Weird Al: The Book is the fitting companion piece to an extraordinary career.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
January 1, 2022
Everything Weird Al does is 5 stars. He is truly an icon.
December 2, 2012
Had no clue I had a photo published in the book. This makes me happy.
December 27, 2012
Longer review coming to Books That Rock Us, but I will say I enjoyed this book. I a fan of Al's music, and I imagine a die-hard Al fan would love this for Christmas. I didn't know quite what to expect, if this would be a "serious" bio or a parody biography like The Compleat Al was, but I loved the artwork.
Update: 12/26/12
The Review
When it comes to things like music and movies, my siblings and I used to seldom agree. Growing up, one listened to country music, one to Christian rock, while I had the Beatles and the Doors in heavy rotation on my turntable (look it up). Rarely did we ever go out together for an event where one of us had to be dragged against his/her will. The only time I recall our willingness to be seen in the same place was when Weird Al Yankovic played the Florida Theater during his Off the Deep End tour. Funny how songs about television and food can unite a family. We haven't attended a concert as a group since.
On a message board dedicated to another music act we have a thread dedicated to the genius of Weird Al - yes, when you think about it, Al does more than switch out lyrics to popular songs. He writes funny original songs as well - some topical, some macabre (Al was singing about psycho Santas before it was cool), others sticking to the comfort zones of food and television. The amazing thing about Al, though, is that after 30+ years in the business he continues to dominate the comedy music genre. Singers come and go, and some stubbornly refuse to budge - we can argue that Lady Gaga replaces Madonna, and Taylor Swift replaces Shania Twain...but I can't think of one heir apparent to Al. He's got it locked.
When I saw Weird Al: The Book, I wondered if it was produced in similar vein to The Compleat Al, a parody documentary of Al's life which is (I think) out of print. It surprised me, therefore, to discover this is a serious (but not devoid of humor) biography of Yankovic presented in a pseudo-scrapbook format with Rabin's research interspersed with numerous pictures and input from Al - commentary and a selection of the singer's best Tweets. If you have seen the Behind the Music special on Al, you probably won't find anything new here aside from everything that's happened since the special first aired: marriage, family, and an untimely tragedy. As Al intimated at the beginning of the VH1 show, he was surprised anybody would want to profile him, given he hasn't lived a life of scandal and debauchery, which for many equates to interesting.
So, you won't find any crooked skeletons in Yankovic's closet - no dish from ex-girlfriends, no mug shots, no reports of squandering royalties on troll dolls. However, being Weird Al does not come free of headaches. I found his clashes with his record label interesting - you do come away learning a bit about how the industry works, and what some people will do to empty a consumer's wallet. You'll also learn that it always doesn't pay to be the biggest fish in certain ponds.
As it's written and presented, you get the impression Weird Al: The Book is for the fans, and you're die-hard into Al you probably already own it and don't need me to review it for you. If you like Al's music, it's worth a read to gain more insight into the parody process - it's more involved than you think, and Al is more than just weird.
Update: 12/26/12
The Review
When it comes to things like music and movies, my siblings and I used to seldom agree. Growing up, one listened to country music, one to Christian rock, while I had the Beatles and the Doors in heavy rotation on my turntable (look it up). Rarely did we ever go out together for an event where one of us had to be dragged against his/her will. The only time I recall our willingness to be seen in the same place was when Weird Al Yankovic played the Florida Theater during his Off the Deep End tour. Funny how songs about television and food can unite a family. We haven't attended a concert as a group since.
On a message board dedicated to another music act we have a thread dedicated to the genius of Weird Al - yes, when you think about it, Al does more than switch out lyrics to popular songs. He writes funny original songs as well - some topical, some macabre (Al was singing about psycho Santas before it was cool), others sticking to the comfort zones of food and television. The amazing thing about Al, though, is that after 30+ years in the business he continues to dominate the comedy music genre. Singers come and go, and some stubbornly refuse to budge - we can argue that Lady Gaga replaces Madonna, and Taylor Swift replaces Shania Twain...but I can't think of one heir apparent to Al. He's got it locked.
When I saw Weird Al: The Book, I wondered if it was produced in similar vein to The Compleat Al, a parody documentary of Al's life which is (I think) out of print. It surprised me, therefore, to discover this is a serious (but not devoid of humor) biography of Yankovic presented in a pseudo-scrapbook format with Rabin's research interspersed with numerous pictures and input from Al - commentary and a selection of the singer's best Tweets. If you have seen the Behind the Music special on Al, you probably won't find anything new here aside from everything that's happened since the special first aired: marriage, family, and an untimely tragedy. As Al intimated at the beginning of the VH1 show, he was surprised anybody would want to profile him, given he hasn't lived a life of scandal and debauchery, which for many equates to interesting.
So, you won't find any crooked skeletons in Yankovic's closet - no dish from ex-girlfriends, no mug shots, no reports of squandering royalties on troll dolls. However, being Weird Al does not come free of headaches. I found his clashes with his record label interesting - you do come away learning a bit about how the industry works, and what some people will do to empty a consumer's wallet. You'll also learn that it always doesn't pay to be the biggest fish in certain ponds.
As it's written and presented, you get the impression Weird Al: The Book is for the fans, and you're die-hard into Al you probably already own it and don't need me to review it for you. If you like Al's music, it's worth a read to gain more insight into the parody process - it's more involved than you think, and Al is more than just weird.
October 31, 2017
Read this in anticipation of Squeeze Box coming out next month. Even as a huge fan of Al's I've gotta say, this book was just okay. The photos were fun, but I really didn't learn anything new in the text. Still though, as a pretty die-hard fan of Al's was I really supposed to?
All in all, a fun read nonetheless.
All in all, a fun read nonetheless.
April 22, 2022
Fun but silly. I had to put this down and come back to it. And either I lost the thread or it ran out of steam right when I stopped. I probably would have liked some slightly more serious Weird Al books better. But this was fun. It told of his earlier days and some stories of the songs. And had me actually listen to some of songs that I had missed. Fluff. But fun fluff. 3.5 of 5.
February 3, 2013
As is well known, I love Weird Al. This book, I'm lukewarm on. Part of the problem is that, since it's a coffee-table-type book, it's fairly surface-level stuff. There was very little in it that I didn't already know. However, Nathan Rabin was also part of the problem. I have a thing about Rabin's writing (which I'm mostly familiar with through the AV Club website): when he's writing about something terrible, I find him hilarious. When he writes about something great, I find him insufferable. Maybe insufferable isn't quite the right word--I want to tell him to dial it down. Calm down. Chill out.
To sum up, I don't feel bad that I got this at the library instead of buying it.
To sum up, I don't feel bad that I got this at the library instead of buying it.
August 5, 2025
I mean, it's a must if you're a fan of the pre-eminent accordion playing parodiy artist of our time.
October 16, 2022
A tad too fangirly but full of lively photos, song lyric pages and anecdotes with a clear, linear and not unnecessarily detailed run of events from the first acordian or round about ten years ago.
December 26, 2022
I inhaled this book. While I already knew much of Al’s biography and discography, I discovered some new information on both.
November 17, 2019
I downloaded this book because I liked the music of Weird Al and I wanted to learn more about him. Parts of the book were written in the same quirky style as Weird Al himself. Funny, aloof, informative and thought provoking. While I knew most of his story, I found many useful bits of information and it filled in many gaps.
This book uses an odd third person perspective. Imagine asking somebody you never met to describe your life. In my opinion, it’s out of place for Al. He is such an out there person who does his stuff his way. Why can’t he tell his own story? At the same time, each page is loaded with little first person facts and pictures from his life. These two styles are quite contrasting.
I would have liked to have seen more of his personal insight. For example. What was it like to film the movie UHF? This book spent only two paragraphs for the entire movie. I would think it would get an entire chapter including the writing process, selecting actors, music and editing.
The end of the book surprised me. Like three chapters got deleted. I expected some sort of conclusion. At least a “thanks for buying my book.” Overall, I liked the book, but it could have been much better.
This book uses an odd third person perspective. Imagine asking somebody you never met to describe your life. In my opinion, it’s out of place for Al. He is such an out there person who does his stuff his way. Why can’t he tell his own story? At the same time, each page is loaded with little first person facts and pictures from his life. These two styles are quite contrasting.
I would have liked to have seen more of his personal insight. For example. What was it like to film the movie UHF? This book spent only two paragraphs for the entire movie. I would think it would get an entire chapter including the writing process, selecting actors, music and editing.
The end of the book surprised me. Like three chapters got deleted. I expected some sort of conclusion. At least a “thanks for buying my book.” Overall, I liked the book, but it could have been much better.
July 20, 2013
I'm a longtime and huge Weird Al fan, so I nabbed this pretty quickly once it came into my library. And read it in one evening.
Gorgeous book with photos of Al (such an adorable, charismatic kid!), art based on his works, and other cool visuals. Plus some hilarious comments and tweets from Al. The main story is written in a slightly cliche'd style but Al's life and career are so fascinating that the actual tale makes it fascinating. Also, Rabin put in, just enough analysis of Al's music and his cultural significance to deepen readers' appreciation of Al's works, without being annoyingly intellectual.
For Weird Al and pop-culture fans, and those curious about Al's life and work (like my husband, a non-fan who enjoyed the book!)
Gorgeous book with photos of Al (such an adorable, charismatic kid!), art based on his works, and other cool visuals. Plus some hilarious comments and tweets from Al. The main story is written in a slightly cliche'd style but Al's life and career are so fascinating that the actual tale makes it fascinating. Also, Rabin put in, just enough analysis of Al's music and his cultural significance to deepen readers' appreciation of Al's works, without being annoyingly intellectual.
For Weird Al and pop-culture fans, and those curious about Al's life and work (like my husband, a non-fan who enjoyed the book!)
November 28, 2015
Weird Al has been highly influential on my tastes in both music and humor, so it's a shame there hadn't been a book about him. Well, actually, there was one thirty years ago, but it went out of print very quickly. If you're hoping for an in-depth biography, whether serious or jokey, that's still yet to come. The information here was largely pretty basic stuff I'd already been on the Internet. It was still an enjoyable read, however, and was accompanied with a lot of pictures and many comedic lists and asides by Al himself.
November 11, 2017
I read a few biographies and memoirs every year - people I find interesting or entertaining such as Jim Henson, Carrie Fisher, Nikolai Tesla, Ron Perlman, Bruce Campbell, Patton Oswalt - and I thought I'd read a book about Weird Al. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping for a biography but this book primarily focuses on Weird Al's career and has very little about his personal life. Though humorous and well stocked with photos this book fails to give much insight on Weird Al's life beyond his music career.
September 20, 2012
At the risk of being immodest, I was very happy with how this book turned out. Al's got a helluva story and I think this book does justice to him and his legacy. If nothing else, it has all manner of amazing images and rare photographs.
September 24, 2012
Move over, shrine to baby teeth and My Little Ponies I've Done Horrible Things To, I need to make a spot in pride-of-place for something much more entertaining.
Yeah. That didn't sound creepy at all.
Point is, got my precious copy today and plan to enjoy it like a fine vintage twinkie.
Yeah. That didn't sound creepy at all.
Point is, got my precious copy today and plan to enjoy it like a fine vintage twinkie.
December 19, 2018
The only good thing about this was Al's hilarious Tweets. The rest is all stuff you either already know or probably don't care about unless you're such a huge fan that you buy EVERYTHING Al is involved with in which case you already have this.
July 18, 2016
Worth it just for the album covers.
June 14, 2016
Love the layout, lots of little tidbits to keep you interested.
January 18, 2019
I have long been a fan of Weird Al [1]--who could not be a fan of an iconoclastic, nerdy, accordian playing person who has successfully mashed up polka, pop, rock, and rap music with seeming effortless ease, mastering covers as well as original songs. This is clearly a book written with the fan in mind. Coming in at 200 large and glossy pages, this is a book that is both easy to read and easy to appreciate. It gives backstage personal information at the rise of Weird Al, how it was that he conceived of his career, the importance of good connections, and the way that he long sought to obtain permission from the singers and labels he worked with in order to maintain good relationships with the artists he spoofed, most of whom (correctly) saw it as an honor that he would set their tunes to some sort of ridiculous but on point message. I think that for me and possibly many others it was the combination of seriousness and riotously funny elements in Weird Al songs that have kept me coming back again and again to his material for the almost past three decades since I became familiar with his songs.
This book has some major contributions, it should be noted, by Weird Al drummer Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, whose obsessive collection of Weird Al arcana really makes this book even better. The singer and accordian player himself introduces the book with a humorous reflection of the author's successful desire to have a coffee table book about him. After that there is a substantial amount of material about the parody artist as a young man, with family photos and a discussion of his early career as an artist seeking fame on the Dr. Demento show and how he got a degree in architecture as a fallback option he thankfully never had to use. The second chapter of the book explores his initial period of popularity in the 1980's through his spoofs of Michael Jackson hits like "Eat It" and "Fat," his failed "Polka Party" album and the unfortunate financial failure that was UHF. After this, the third chapter examines the success of Weird Al's career in the 1990's thanks to the rise of Kurt Kobain and Weird Al's timely rap spoofs, a decade in which he had hits and good album sales but his label went bankrupt. The fourth chapter discusses his adoption of a new look and his marriage and albums of the 2000's, while the book closes with a discussion of the Alpocalypse (and hints at Mandatory Fun, though it is not included here) as well as a discography, videography, and photo credits.
This book has the warmth of an official exploration of the life of a massively popular artist that would look good on any coffee table. And I say this as someone who has no coffee table but has a lot of books who would look good on it, I must say. Weird Al appears like someone who has managed to find a worthwhile niche as someone who uses the songs and adapts the styles of other artists in such a way as to pay homage while also poking gentle fun of the culture he is a part of. By urging listeners not to take everything in life so seriously, he serves as both a timely social critic of the problems of commercialism, the downsides of love and vacations, and the nature of pop culture and technology, and many other subjects. If Weird Al were not so good at what he does and had not acquired such a positive relationship with both other artists as well as a wide and appreciative listening audience, it is possible that he would be considered a parasite of culture rather than an immensely influential part of it. Here's hoping that he is able to create timely and entertaining music for a long time to come.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2013...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2012...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2012...
This book has some major contributions, it should be noted, by Weird Al drummer Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, whose obsessive collection of Weird Al arcana really makes this book even better. The singer and accordian player himself introduces the book with a humorous reflection of the author's successful desire to have a coffee table book about him. After that there is a substantial amount of material about the parody artist as a young man, with family photos and a discussion of his early career as an artist seeking fame on the Dr. Demento show and how he got a degree in architecture as a fallback option he thankfully never had to use. The second chapter of the book explores his initial period of popularity in the 1980's through his spoofs of Michael Jackson hits like "Eat It" and "Fat," his failed "Polka Party" album and the unfortunate financial failure that was UHF. After this, the third chapter examines the success of Weird Al's career in the 1990's thanks to the rise of Kurt Kobain and Weird Al's timely rap spoofs, a decade in which he had hits and good album sales but his label went bankrupt. The fourth chapter discusses his adoption of a new look and his marriage and albums of the 2000's, while the book closes with a discussion of the Alpocalypse (and hints at Mandatory Fun, though it is not included here) as well as a discography, videography, and photo credits.
This book has the warmth of an official exploration of the life of a massively popular artist that would look good on any coffee table. And I say this as someone who has no coffee table but has a lot of books who would look good on it, I must say. Weird Al appears like someone who has managed to find a worthwhile niche as someone who uses the songs and adapts the styles of other artists in such a way as to pay homage while also poking gentle fun of the culture he is a part of. By urging listeners not to take everything in life so seriously, he serves as both a timely social critic of the problems of commercialism, the downsides of love and vacations, and the nature of pop culture and technology, and many other subjects. If Weird Al were not so good at what he does and had not acquired such a positive relationship with both other artists as well as a wide and appreciative listening audience, it is possible that he would be considered a parasite of culture rather than an immensely influential part of it. Here's hoping that he is able to create timely and entertaining music for a long time to come.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2013...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2012...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2012...
September 17, 2025
This is the second book about Weird Al that I have read in the past year or so (along with going to my first Weird Al concert this year), the other being Weird Al: Seriously by Lily Hirsch. That one was more about the experiences of Weird Al's fans, and this is more about a chronological look at his life, focusing on his career on an album-by-album basis, or well, project-by-project, since it does cover the UHF film, Al TV, and the cartoon. It is kind of a coffee table book format, with lots of pictures and some enlarged quotes and tweets that are fun palate cleansers. I read the Kindle edition, though, and I think print would be better for the pictures. The Kindle edition also had some significant format errors towards the end that made it challenging to read, and the pictures got separated from their captions, and most of the quotes disappeared, which was a disappointment, but that could also be fixed at some point in the future, or might be isolated to my download. As an Al fan since the mid-to-late '80s, I didn't necessarily agree with some of the author's opinions on which songs and albums were the best, but those opinions didn't color the text too terribly much. For the most part, it was quite enjoyable, apart from the formatting issues, though I did find that the page count was padded out a little bit by printed song lyrics, and not always the ones I liked the best... but that is also partly because I just already know a lot of the lyrics by heart, so I read through a bunch of the first few and remembered all of them, so I skimmed those sections a bit more for songs I knew after a while. Not everyone will feel the same about that, though. Overall, this was a lot of fun, I learned things about the making of various projects, and saw some fun pictures and jokes along the way.
June 2, 2024
Five stars squared! Absolutely AMAZING! I loved it! I'm completely obsessed with weird al and strive to be weird Al's biggest fan, and that started with this book. Nathan Rabin brought weird al the life in my mind and I will reread and reread this book until I have practically memorized it.
I live that it has a full list of updated discography at the end that even includes which have music videos and which don't. It includes plenty of pictures from the very beginning of Al's life to now. It starts when weird al was a child, goes through his earlier career with Dr. Demento, all the way to his 2011 album "Alpocalypse", skipping nothing all the way through. It also includes tweets from Weird Al here and there that will have you ROTFLOL. Best book ever! Recommend it to everybody ALIVE even if you hate weird al(God forbid it)
"Just walked two whole blocks and didn't see a single Starbucks. Where am I, communist China?"
-Weird Al Yankovic
I live that it has a full list of updated discography at the end that even includes which have music videos and which don't. It includes plenty of pictures from the very beginning of Al's life to now. It starts when weird al was a child, goes through his earlier career with Dr. Demento, all the way to his 2011 album "Alpocalypse", skipping nothing all the way through. It also includes tweets from Weird Al here and there that will have you ROTFLOL. Best book ever! Recommend it to everybody ALIVE even if you hate weird al(God forbid it)
"Just walked two whole blocks and didn't see a single Starbucks. Where am I, communist China?"
-Weird Al Yankovic
Read
March 30, 2018wow, I didn't know this book existed. The kind of obscure books you can unearth from the library is weird and serendipitous. Anyway, it is only right that an official biography of Earth's rightful benevolent overlord is in publication. The pieces written by Weird Al- such as the preface and photo commentary- are light and hilarious. The actual straightforward biography by Nathan Rabin is less so. But you will learn some things about Weird Al's upbringing and influences. As other people have said, maybe you can read a ton of his biography already in Wikpedia. The benefit of this book is that it preserves Weird Al's biography in the Library of Congress for all posterity!
October 28, 2018
A light and pleasant biography interspersed with photos, quotations and other goofs from Al himself. There are a few gems in here, like learning that Al's manager Jay Levey got his start working with Timothy Leary. Unfortunately the way the book is laid out is rather unsatisfying: Each long chapter is an unbroken string of paragraphs, which doesn't give major events or statements any room to breathe. This also means that a sentence can be broken up by two or three pages of photos or tweets, further spoiling the flow. The book kind of feels like one enormous magazine article. That said, I didn't dislike any of the content, and as a long-time fan I enjoyed all of the behind-the-scenes stuff.
June 13, 2017
A fun, if occasionally lightweight, biography spiced up with more jokes than you'd expect (from a biography) but exactly as many as you'd expect. (from Al himself)
This is a lot of fun if you want to take a look at the life of someone who has, as likely as not, provided a solid portion of the soundtrack to your life, see where he's come from and put together a timeline of his career. It's exactly as interesting as you find Weird Al himself, and in my case that's "More than interesting enough..."
This is a lot of fun if you want to take a look at the life of someone who has, as likely as not, provided a solid portion of the soundtrack to your life, see where he's come from and put together a timeline of his career. It's exactly as interesting as you find Weird Al himself, and in my case that's "More than interesting enough..."
June 30, 2019
As much as I enjoyed this book (and the Mad Magazine-loving kid in me ate it up like candy--or perhaps more appropriately: bologna), now I'm ready for the if-not-scholarly, then at least more thoughtful analysis of Al's music: recurring topics , ideas, themes, social impact, etc. Nathan, if you'll write it, I'll buy it. Bonus points to Rabin/Yankovic for providing the complete lyrics for "Albuquerque," one of my favorite Weird Al songs! (At one point, my nephew memorized and could perfectly recite the whole song! Can you still do it, T?)
February 20, 2024
This was a very brilliantly done biography that covered more of Mr. Yankovic's working life than personal life. Mr. Rabin's prose is snappy and fun to read, and the inclusion of random tweets and lists from Mr. Yankovic himself are fun. The photographs alone make this book worth purchasing for any ardent Yankovic fan. My entire family enjoyed this, and we all learned a lot that we didn't know previously, which took some doing.
Have my own personal copy, signed by Mr. Yankovic!
https://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/...
Have my own personal copy, signed by Mr. Yankovic!
https://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/...
December 4, 2022
Good Read for any Al fan.
If you've love Al since his Dr. Demento appearance, or discovered him from a spoof of one of your favorite artists, this book will help fill in some gaps. If you're a die hard fan, this will touch on many things you already know and hopefully a few things you didn't
I enjoyed the book and hoped for a little more. It was still good and so many great pictures of his career through the years.
If you've love Al since his Dr. Demento appearance, or discovered him from a spoof of one of your favorite artists, this book will help fill in some gaps. If you're a die hard fan, this will touch on many things you already know and hopefully a few things you didn't
I enjoyed the book and hoped for a little more. It was still good and so many great pictures of his career through the years.
October 16, 2024
This FUN READ is part-biography and part-picture book (maybe a bit heavy on the pics, but they are good). It does a great job documenting Weird Al's long career in showbiz (including his time working with Dr. Demento). It also contains some details about his personal life. My favorite contribution from this silly, but talented artist was the WHITE AND NERDY music vid... a CLASSIC!
If you are a fan of Weird Al, this is a MUST READ.
If you are a fan of Weird Al, this is a MUST READ.
August 21, 2025
I thought it was a tasteful description and had great elements of really feeling like I knew the guy. The book paints him out to be a nice guy whose only goal is to make people laugh, wish I had the chance to meet him. Well I did, I met him outside an Arby's on 36th and North Avenue in Los Angeles California in 2016. I'll never forget what he did to me, it wont ever see the light of day because it will ruin his career.
January 27, 2018
A fun overview of a fun career. Ranked and enjoyed as much for the appreciation of Al in general as for the book’s specifics. My son, a burgeoning Al-coholic, loved it too. It’s autobiographical and not intended to be a tell-all, so there aren’t any lurid details of things like what the band really eats, but enough insider info to be entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews