That's because a lot of these are "style parodies" where he parodies the style of a certain band.
Everything You Know Is Wrong is famously a style parody of They Might Be Giants.
Once you hear the style you can't unhear it. He nails TMBG uncannily.
The only way Everything You Know Is Wrong could get any better is if TMBG did a cover of it.
A fair number of the original artists have been outlasted by Al, but I deeply wish we could get an album of them covering Weird Al's style covers. I think TMBG would be up for it, and I suspect you could get Trent Reznor to cover "Germs."
Thanks, I'll peruse this. Dare To Be Stupid is my favorite song by both him and one of top Devo songs.
I believe Mark Mothersbaugh called it "more Devo than Devo."
He's so good at that. I know Presidents started replacing the final line of Lump with that of Gump, I wouldn't be surprised if other bands do similar things. Of course that's a parody, not a pastiche, but still.
Don McLean has definitely substituted the chorus from The Saga Begins when he's doing live shows
That song is so good that it makes me want to watch that movie again, which is quite the feat.
Mark Knopfler only allowed him to parody Money for Nothing if Knopfler himself played the guitar solo on the recording. So it's a very odd case of a parody song with the guy who wrote and performed the original song playing on the track.
Also, Greg Kihn is in the I Lost on Jeopardy video.
Last time I was on a road trip, the 10-minute-long "Stuck In The Drive-Thru" came up on my stream and about halfway through, my daughter in the back seat goes "Who is this?!? It's epic!" I think she's been hooked on Weird Al ever since?
I thought that was making fun of R. Kellys Trapped In The Closet
It is, that one's a straight-up parody, not a pastiche like the songs in the link.
Oh I didn't know that! I will have to check out the original.
I really like 'Albuquerque' I don't believe it's directly parodying a song, and if it is lmao
Not directly, but as the page says, it parodies Dick's Automotive by The Rugburns. Which is weird, because it's already a funny song.
"What I do have it's this one box of starving, crazed weasels."
".....ok. I'll take that."
"Mission Statement" off of Mandatory Fun is totally a style parody of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Pretty funny too, because it takes the sound of a free love hippie group from the 60's and uses it to ramble off a bunch of corporate buzz words.
I could see it being a straight parody of their song "Carry On", but Al usually sticks a lot closer to the original arrangement when doing song parodies.
You Make Me is, i believe, supposed to be in the style of Oingo Boingo. It's always been one of my favorite "original" Weird Al songs.
I could see that.
Seems to be missing Close but no cigar, style parody of Cake