Al's Older Pairodies

Hello everyone!

This work is the culmination of a dream to which have aspired for a couple of years now.

OK, maybe it isn't that big a deal. But I hope some of you will enjoy it and appreciate the effort behind it.

This is a nearly complete compilation of every Weird Al Yankovich song which is a specific parody of a particular song, paired up with that original song. (Each such entry is a "pairody.") This does not include "style" parodies, such as "Dare To Be Stupid" or "Craigslist," nor does it include the polkafied medleys.

This is a new torrent, as the old one got corrupted somehow. Right now there are three: Newer Pairodies, Older Pairodies, and Unreleased Pairodies. Contents of all three should be unique.

I started listening to Al right from the start, when I was in college, and Dr. Demento ruled the airwaves. I remember hearing "Another One Rides The Bus" when it was new -- I mean BRAND NEW! -- and was an instant fan. My first thoughts were along the lines of "Who is this guy, and how long have I been missing him?!?" Fortunately, as noted, I had missed virtually nothing.

All to the point, I have raised a number of kids now, and all (well, the boys anyway) are firm Al fans too. I found myself, in this amazing Internet age, downloading songs for them so they could hear exactly what songs Al was spoofing ("What?!? You've never heard 'Eye of the Tiger'"?), and it occured to me how convenient it would be to have an album --oops, a CD -- oops, a playlist -- that paired up the original with the parody, for the benefit of those who may not know the originals. As it turned out, the sword was two-edged as I discovered how many of the more recent originals I didn't know! I've heard a lot of new music doing this -- a lot of which I will most likely not listen to again ("I'm In Love With A Stripper"? Really?)

Anyway, here are three different folders-full of Al and ... lots of others.
I've broken it down to three categories -- older material, newer, and unreleased. The older/newer distinction is a bit vague, and was more to keep folder sizes manageable. Put it this way -- if you grew up with Black Sabbath on FM and disco on AM, you'll relate to the "older" folder. If you grew up with "Golden Oldies" stations playing The Who, try the "newer" folder. Nothing is really sorted, except vaguely alphabetical, from the original list I worked off of. A couple times 2 songs were noted as contributing to one Al song (such as Bedrock Anthem); both original songs are included. Also, two significantly different versions of one Al song are included in one entry. (Thanx and a tip o' the hat to Wikipedia!)

The "Older" and "Newer" folders are, to the best of my knowledge, all of the officially released songs. The "Unreleased" folder, obviously, not "official" Al work. Some of it is live, some of it is from Dr. Demento or demos, etc. A LOT of it is very short little bits -- just a few lines which he evidently never developed into full songs. That makes this folder very topheavy on the original material: for example Heart's "Crazy On You" runs 4 1/2 minutes; Al's "Gravy on You," less than 30 seconds!

I don't expect a lot of people will be listening to every single original song in this, but I intend this more as an encyclopedia -- a digital archive, an electronic cathedral, to preserve for future generations the towering genius of -- whoops, getting carried away again. But you get the idea.

Just a couple of final comments: Wikipedia referenced a couple of unreleased songs which I couldn't find. God willing, they are not already lost to the future. Oh, and the only exception I made (I think) to the general guidelines noted above are that in the "Older" folder I included the hard-to-find home demo version of "Yoda", which is the version I first heard on Dr. Demento, and I still think sounds better. Also, I've included the home demo of "I Love Rocky Road" in the "Unreleased" folder as a bonus, again, just because it sounds good and is an interesting contrast to the polished-up release. If you want all kinds of live recordings and alternative versions, there's another torrent for that.

Share and enjoy!