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zwolanerd

I guess I just like liking things

Weird Al Week

Putting together a Top Ten list of Weird Al songs is a task I’ve put off as long as possible, while still letting it simmer on the back burner. It’s just so daunting, you know? There are so many different ways to do it, too: favorite parodies, favorite originals, funniest, darkest, food-related, TV-related, relationship-related, most listenable – for starters. I decided to give flat-out “favorite” a stab, but please forgive me if I try it again in the future and it comes up differently. In the end, picking favorites ends up being a mix of those things, anyway.

I figured a good starting point would be to see what songs I had on my Zune, figuring if they were zuneworthy, they were obviously some of my favorites. Going through that list of 22 songs revealed two things:

  1. There are some songs I love that I neglected to put on the Zune. Most notably “Since You’ve Been Gone.”
  2. Sometimes I put songs from a new album on the Zune for a while but I forget to take them off after the shine is off. Most notably “Perform This Way.”

I thought about calling this my “ten favorite Weird Al songs currently on my Zune,” but that’s fairly unwieldy and kind of ridiculously specific. I think this list ends up being a good representation anyway.

10. Bedrock Anthem – I like this song better than either of the Red Hot Chili Peppers songs it combines. In fact, I am always disappointed when “Under the Bridge” doesn’t segue into “Give It Away” after a little bit.

9. Smells Like Nirvana – This song made me like “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” to date one of very few Nirvana songs I actually like.

8. Amish Paradise – I love when Al parodies rap songs (as you’ll see by this list, apparently!) because it gives me fun subjects to sing along with.

7. Couch Potato – I suspect the original is quite moving because this one makes me want to watch even more TV than I already do.

6. Yoda – The first Weird Al song I ever heard. It was late at night on the Dr. Demento show, turned way down low because I was supposed to be sleeping.

5. White & Nerdy – I’ve talked about this one at length already, but an interesting thing has happened. In my previous breakdown I showed where I didn’t match up. Now, I kind of want to use the song as a template, a list of things to be achieved. I mean, I’ll never manage the science and math stuff, but I sorta want to, and it’s this song’s fault.

4. Eat It – The first song I ever recorded at those “sing to the hits!” booths at amusement parks. I loaned my original copy of my recording to a girlfriend in high school and she (says she) lost it. Thinking about this still kinda knots up my stomach. Lesson: Don’t hand out your originals, people.

3. One More Minute – I sang a slightly-modified version of this for a talent night in college, and it went over pretty well. The good response and the time spent learning it melded an already-great song to my favorites list.

2. It’s All About the Pentiums – I’d love to see Al update this one every couple of years to reflect new trends. The video for this one might be my favorite of his.

1. The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota – I can’t rightly explain why this one is my favorite. It’s partly the story-telling, it’s partly the list of real places, it’s partly the characters in it, it’s partly the tune. No one I’ve ever made listen to it (under the banner of “You have to hear this!”) has ever liked it as much as me, but I still have a dream of performing it some day. I don’t really know what that particular performance and crowd would like like, but it’s still on my dreams list.

 

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