Following an odd grassroots campaign to get Weezer to cover Toto’s hit song “Africa,” Weezer now has its first Hot 100-charting single in twelve years. To help promote and celebrate the band’s unlikely cover, Weezer has produced a video with “Weird Al” Yankovic leading the band.
In the video, Yankovic portrays Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo. And he busts out his accordion near the end of the song for a solo. Check it out.
The “Toto” video may look familiar to Weezer fans. The look copies Weezer’s own video for “Undone (The Sweater Song).” Here is the video for that song.
Toto, flattered by Weezer’s cover of their classic “Africa,” returned the favor earlier this year. They covered Weezer’s song, “Hash Pipe.”
What song would you like to hear Weezer cover next? Leave your two cents in the comments.
If you are like me, you may be or have been re-watching all or some of the Star Wars movies to get ready for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Of course, everyone loves Star Wars (A New Hope) (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983). And maybe you do not mind Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). But what if you really do not want again to watch The Phantom Menace (1999), generally considered the worse of the lot?
Fortunately, we have a solution from Weird Al Yankovic, who summarized Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in his song “The Saga Begins,” which appeared on his 1999 album Running with Scissors. Set to the tune of Don McLean’s epic “American Pie,” Yankovic’s parody song presents the story from the point of view of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
“The Saga Begins” is pretty funny in the way it rhymes all of the strange Star Wars locations like Boss Nass, Coruscant, Naboo, and Tatooine. More surprisingly, Yankovic does a really excellent job of covering the plot points. And of course there is that memorable “American Pie” tune that just makes us want to sing along.
Oh my my, this here Anakin guy, Maybe Vader someday later, now he’s just a small fry; He left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye, Sayin’, “Soon I’m gonna be a Jedi, soon I’m gonna be a Jedi”
Weird Al also made a cool video to go with the song. Maybe you do not want to watch The Phantom Menace because there is too much Jar Jar Binks or because that kid’s pod race goes on way too long. Maybe you just think the movie is irrelevant to the series or that the film is a “failure on every possible level.” Or maybe you loved the move. Either way, you probably will enjoy Weird Al Yankovic’s “The Saga Begins.”
What is your favorite Star Wars film? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Recently Jack Black and Jimmy Fallon put together a shot-for-shot remake of the classic video of Extreme’s song “More Than Words” for The Tonight Show. The creators of the new video did a great job with both the singing and the images, even including the shot of the band member holding up a lighter.
“More than Words” originally appeared on the 1990 album Extreme II: Pornograffiti. The ballad was a bit of a departure for the rock band, but it went to number one. While the Fallon-Black remake probably will not be a number one song, the video is already popular on YouTube. Check it out.
The Fallon-Black remake is not the first time the video has been copied. “Weird Al” Yankovic did his twist on the “More Than Words” video with his video for “You Don’t Love Me Anymore.” The song appeared on Yankovic’s 1992 album Off the Deep End.
While the original song by Yankovic was not a parody of “More Than Words,” some fans mistakenly thought it was. So when the record company insisted on a parody video to accompany the release of “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” as a single, Yankovic decided to use the “More Than Words” video as the basis for his video. Check it out (trivia: the piano player who gets the bow in the eye is singer Robert Goulet).
If the parody/tribute videos leaves you wanting to see the original Extreme video, see below. Or you can play it simultaneously with the Fallon-Black one above.
What do you think of the videos relating to “More Than Words”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
If you have been too busy pepper spraying shoppers trying to grab that toy you want, here are some of the pop culture stories from the week that you might have missed.
——— Music ———
No Depression featured an interesting story about a recent encounter with Garth Hudson of The Band.
No Depression also featured a nice review of Glen Campbell on his final tour. Chimesfreedom sends our best wishes to The Bee Gees’ Robin Gibb, who is fighting liver cancer.
The Rolling Stones are releasing an expanded reissue of Some Girls, including a song with John Fogerty.
“Does this mean I can play whatever I want?” — Ozzy Osbourne on getting his own music channel on SiriusXM Radio.
“What I do is more like a poke in the ribs than a kick in the face.” – Weird Al Yankovic in Chicago Tribune profile.
Influential jazz drummer and bandleader Paul Motian passed away last week. RIP.
“Cracklin’ Rosie, get on board!” Neil Diamond will tour this summer to support a greatest hits CD.
If you are a fan of The Swell Season, check out this interview with Marketa Irglova about The Swell Season, the new documentary on the band, and her new solo CD.
WhatCulture! has a review of William Shatner’s new CD, Seeking Major Tom. Below is Shatner’s version of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” with his face in the sky of this crazy official video.
——— Movies ———-
“He’s an older Bruce Wayne; he’s not in a great state.” — Christopher Nolan revealing some information on the upcomingThe Dark Night Rises, which begins eight years after the last Batman film.
Scarlett Johansson will direct a film adaptation of a Truman Capote novella, Summer Crossing.
A new Woody Allen documentary prompted several stories. One article on the film quoted director Robert Weide on Woody Allen: “He doesn’t think of himself as a great artist.’’ Meanwhile, Salon ranked Woody Allen’s 10 Greatest Films. Personally, I think it is a crime that the list does not include Crimes and Misdemeanors.
“The Muppets are sweet and subversive.” — Los Angeles Times review. In another Muppets-related story, Slate discussed “Mahna Mahna” and how music from an Italian soft-core film became the Muppets’ catchiest song.
——— Television ———
Elizabeth Shue will become a regular on “CSI” starting in February, replacing Marg Helgenberger.
CBS signed up Survivorfor two more seasons with Jeff Probst as host and executive producer.
I recently watched the new two-part Martin Scorsese documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World. Overall, the documentary is interesting and informative, but often it seemed like the film was giving us hints about the man more than a story. But we can never fully understand a person, so really all we have are hints.
The film used a lot of George Harrison’s music. Scorsese seems to have a real fondness for “All Things Must Pass,” which is an excellent title song from what is generally considered Harrison’s best post-Beatles work. But for the last part of Harrison’s career, the film gave us a short glimpse of his Traveling Wilbury’s work while completely overlooking his last solo hit, “Got My Mind Set on You.”
“Got My Mind Set on You,” which appeared on Harrison’s album Cloud Nine (1988) after its release as a single, was Harrison’s last number one single in the U.S. The song, however, was not a Harrison original. It was written by Rudy Clark and was recorded by James Ray twenty-five years earlier in 1962. I love Ray’s version too.
Maybe Living in the Material World did not use “Got My Mind Set on You” because there was a rights issue. Or maybe Scorsese saw the song as one of Harrison’s lesser works and sees it the same way “Weird Al” Yankovic does.
Still, I recall in 1987-1988 that the song was a huge hit constantly playing on the radio. Along with the CD and the Beatle-esque “When We Was Fab,” the radio-friendly song was a nice return from Harrison, who had not released an album for more than a decade. The album also led to Harrison recruiting a few friends to record a B-side to one of the songs on Cloud Nine, “This is Love.” And those friends — Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison — ended up forming The Traveling Wilburys. While Harrison’s recording of “Got My Mind Set On You” may not be Harrison’s best recording, that is no insult considering the quality of his catalog. And it is an excellent catchy pop song.
{Note: Harrison made another video for “Got My Mind Set on You” too, intercutting his performance with scenes from a fair arcade.}
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