A Serious Look at Weird Al Yankovic: Accordionist
When we talk about Weird Al Yankovic, we talk about his amusing lyrics, his goofy videos and clown-like persona, but when you step back from the silliness of it all and really stop to consider Yankovic as a musician, and in particular, as an accordionist, there's a lot to appreciate there beyond the musical spoof.
Beginnings in Music
Weird Al's career in music began with his parents' purchase of an accordion from a traveling salesman a day before Yankovic's sixth birthday. The salesman had been selling guitars and accordions, and his parents went with the latter. This may well be the fork in the road that eventually launched Weird Al's career. Talented guitarists are a dime a dozen, but as just about anyone reading this can tell you, accordions come with a steep learning curve, meaning that truly skilled accordionists are quite few and far between.
Throughout Yankovic's early interest in music and the performing arts, throughout the early stages of his career, he found that using humor was a more effective way to get noticed as an artist than simply following the trends of the day. Combining comedy, polka and contemporary pop music, Yankovic made his debut on the Doctor Demento radio show with a homemade demo of "My Balogna", produced in a public bathroom with his accordion and a pocket sized tape recorder.
The Polka Medleys
The vast majority of Yankovic's fans appreciate his humorous lyrics, his ability to emulate any sound and even, in some cases, surpass the artists he spoofs, as was the case with "Dare to Be Stupid ", which Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh declared "the best Devo song ever written". It takes a real musician, or at least a serious audiophile, however, to really appreciate the sheer masterful playing that goes into Yankovic's "polka medleys".
Nearly every Weird Al album contains, in the midst of flavor-of-the-week pop spoofs, an extended medley of hit songs played at high speed on Weird Al's accordion. These polka medleys are, musically speaking, usually the highlight of any Yankovic disc.
One of the first, and most intense, of these medleys remains "Polka on 45", covering over a dozen songs in over a dozen genres in just under four and a half short minutes. Yankovic plays a masterful rendition of "Hey Jude", segueing seamlessly into The Doors "L.A. Woman ", "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida " and Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe " without missing a beat, and while it's quite easy to fake this sort of mastery in a studio environment, live performances of these medleys should quell any doubts of Yankovic's capabilities as an accordionist with fast fingers, great timing and instinct and a lot of energy.
As difficult as the accordion is to even pick up, let alone master, the challenge of breaking through to mainstream success with the instrument is just as great. Yankovic's ability to not only play the accordion very well, but to play it to sold out arena crowds and on multi-platinum CDs is nothing to laugh at (even as Yankovic asks us to laugh "with" him).
Newest File Uploads
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Souvenir de Lille A delightful french musette piece for accordion, composed by myself. |
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Samba Romantica --- Domi Emorine Between 1983 and 1989, Domi Emorine won twenty-four prizes as a child prodigy. In 1990, not yet fifteen years old, she won the World Accordion Championship and the UNAF prize. In 1991, she won the Silver Medal; and in 1993 the SACEM medal in the 'Voice and Wind' category. Five years later, Domi won the World Championship again. She also did something unique in the annals of acc... |
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Polka Italienne --- Domi Emorine Between 1983 and 1989, Domi Emorine won twenty-four prizes as a child prodigy. In 1990, not yet fifteen years old, she won the World Accordion Championship and the UNAF prize. In 1991, she won the Silver Medal; and in 1993 the SACEM medal in the 'Voice and Wind' category. Five years later, Domi won the World Championship again. She also did something unique in the annals of acc... |
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Paris-Moscow --- Roman Jbanov & Domi Emorine For information on these amazing performers, see their separate biographies attached to other music files. This audio sample is from the title track of their CD, The Paris-Moscou Duo, which we gave away in our January 2007 contest. |
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Hiver --- Roman Jbanov & Domi Emorine Roman Zhbanov graduated from The Conservatory of Novosibirsk. When he was fourteen, he won the regional contest of young bayanists. At eighteen he won the International contest in Kligental (Germany). At nineteen he won the forty-seventh International Trophee Mondiale, in Italy. Later, he became a laureate of international contests in Andorra, Spain, Russia and France. He has perfo... |
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Boys of Bluehill (local copy) HI Folks, This is an Irish Hornpipe played on my Roland FR-3X LIVE. I am playing through a software LOOPER (Mobius). I can play once through with one sound and then the recording automatically repeats so I can layer on another saound.Even though I did this at home on St. Pat's day I performed an hours worth of these live before an audience.I hope you emjhoy it. LooseBruce |
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Boutade --- Roman Jbanov & Domi Emorine Bayanist Roman Zhbanov is known to music lovers of Novosibirsk from their childhood. He performed as a soloist with The Russian Folk Instruments Orchestra of the TV and radio company 'Novosibirsk'. Recordings of his performances on radio and TV programs were made time and again. Since 1996, five CDs have been issued, and two films made. This is a far from complete list of achievements ... |
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Badinerie --- Roman Jbanov & Domi Emorine For information on these amazing performers, see their separate biographies on the Contest Page; Domi was introduced in our October contest and Roman in our November contest. Check out these samples. The 'Hiver' is amazing! |
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Accordion Mechanic --- Domi Emorine Between 1983 and 1989, Domi Emorine won twenty-four prizes as a child prodigy. In 1990, not yet fifteen years old, she won the World Accordion Championship and the UNAF prize. In 1991, she won the Silver Medal; and in 1993 the SACEM medal in the 'Voice and Wind' category. Five years later, Domi won the World Championship again. She also did something unique in the annals of acc... |
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typisk trekkspill Hi, everyone! I am new to this forum, and would like to introduce myself. I am a Norwegian all-round musician, playing accordion and keyboards. Most of my work is composing and arranging for all kinds of instruments, bands and choirs. This is a demo page of a little composition for accordion orchestra. More demos can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126261&id... |