Power Rankings: Weird Al's Top 26 Songs

[Meech17]

Man's 65 years old, at this time and not when the thread started a few years ago, and still has the jealousy hair. I say that since I now have no hair.
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I'm between 32 and 33, so pretty much half his age.. and I probably have less than half his hair..

 

[The Sigil]

I know this is a threadlich but I can't resist...

No "Pac Man?"

 

[dbolack]

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. And Weird Al is as professional as they come!

In honor of the Weird Al "biopic" (and yes, there is a thread on that), I am posting my list of the BESTEST EVAR Weird Al Songs. But in order to keep it ... weird, I am going to break this list up a little.

The top 10 parodies.
The top 8 originals.
The top 2 polka/medleys.
The Top 6 "deep cuts."

Got it? Eh, who cares! Embrace the chaos!

How do we feel about The Theme to Rocky 13 and Christmas at Ground Zero?

 

[Eyes of Nine]

(Thank you Snarf for calling out the Beatles and one of their many creepy songs)

 

[Bohandas]

Didn't the songwriter from DEVO even describe Dare to Be Stupid as "the best DEVO song" or a better DEVO song than he'd ever written or something like that

 

[MGibster]

"Skipper Dan" is one of the most realistically depressing songs I've ever heard. In a nutshell, the narrator is a dude who started out as a young man with excellent acting skills who ends up with a mediocre career playing the character Skipper Dan on a jungle cruise ride at an amusement park. If that doesn't encapsulate the hopes and dreams of so many of us, I don't know what does.

 

[Willie the Duck]

1. Eat It. This might be controversial as the number one parody. But hear me now and believe me later- in 1984, nothing was bigger than Michael Jackson and the Thriller Album. And out of nowhere, came this parody. In retrospect, it was kind of stupid. It ... dared to be stupid. But this is where it all started. It might not be the most clever, it wasn't the first, but it's what put Weird Al on the map to stay.

I know this is a threadlich but I can't resist...
No "Pac Man?"

If we're registering surprise at the choices, I'm kinda amazed Eat It has this justification, but Fat doesn't make the top 10. Probably just too similar and Eat it is the better Jackson parody.

 

[billd91]

If we're registering surprise at the choices, I'm kinda amazed Eat It has this justification, but Fat doesn't make the top 10. Probably just too similar and Eat it is the better Jackson parody.

The justification works pretty well for me. It's his really big mainstream breakthrough. "Eat It" took him from Dr. Demento's show right to Top 40 radio.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The justification works pretty well for me. It's his really big mainstream breakthrough. "Eat It" took him from Dr. Demento's show right to Top 40 radio.

When it comes to Weird Al in the popular consciousness, I think it's interesting to view him in terms of his popular hits. There's a lot of ways to measure this (especially in the later youtube/streaming years, or in the zeitgeist-y sense*), but the Billboard Hot 100 is a good proxy for what I am about to do to illustrate why I would not put Fat in my list.

*The Saga Continues was very zeitgeist-y, but not a Hot 100 song.

Note- Weird Al had eleven songs hit the top 100 in his career.

Weird Al was a fixture on Dr. Demento, and his first album actually had a top 100 single on it- the parody song Ricky (peaked at #63). But nothing prepared the world for his next two albums, released in quick succession-
3-D and Dare to be Stupid.
The lead single was Eat It, and it reached ... NUMBER 12!!! In addition, the success of Eat It created space for airplay of Weird Al, and caused a number of subsequent singles to hit the top 100.
King of Suede (62)
I Lost on Jeopardy (81)
Like a Surgeon (47)

Which brings us to Fat. Did he have a great video? Yes, subject to the caveat I will discuss. Did it hit the top 100? Yes, but barely (blipped at #99). But IMO, it was a massive misstep. Because for most people (the non-nerds, back when nerd culture wasn't mainstream) ... Weird Al was a novelty act. Like Buckner & Garcia (Pac Man Fever).

Weird Al was the guy who sang parodies about Michael Jackson, except ... food. Get it? And now he has a parody of Michael Jackson ... with food! I'd also point out that while I don't ding comedy for being of its time, it's definitely not in the Hall of Fame for "Weird Al Songs that have Aged Well."

If I was going to credit a song for re-establishing his popular cultural relevance, it wouldn't be Fat... in my opinion, that hurt it. It would be ... Smells Like Nirvana, which showed he really did have his finger on the pulse and peaked at #35.

Of course, I would argue that Weird Al's true moment of greatness was .... White & Nerdy. Released in 2006, he not only was capturing the wave of increased nerd relevancy, he had his first, and to date only, top 10 hit (#9).

Finally, there was the pop culture return of Weird Al with Word Crimes in 2014 (#39).

Whew. So, if I had to say that there were defining moments in Weird Al's career in music in terms of popular culture as marked by specific songs, they would be:

1. Eat It. Weird Al dares the world to be stupid.
2. Smells Like Nirvana. Weird Al proves that he isn't a novelty act and has staying power.
3. White & Nerdy. Weird Al gets a new generation weird just as that generation is already daring to be stupid.
4. Word Crimes. Weird Al reminds us that he's still got it.

And now? Now I am looking at everything I have just written, and wondering where it all went wrong for me.



(The only other charting songs I haven't mentioned are Amish Paradise, #53 in 1996, and Canadian Idiot, #82 in 2006)

 

[dbolack]

(The only other charting songs I haven't mentioned are Amish Paradise, #53 in 1996, and Canadian Idiot, #82 in 2006)

I think Amish Paradise fits in that abbreviated list.