What Ever Happened to "Weird Al" Yankovic?

Are you a fan of "Weird Al" Yankovic? What ever happened to Weird Al Yankovic anyways? He is definitely one of a kind. This talented entertainer was born with a wild sense of humor. You can discover it for yourself- if you haven't already- by listening to his song parodies on CD. Be careful though. There are several song parodies floating around on the Internet that were allegedly written by Weird Al, but they weren't. If you're not sure whether a song is a "Weird Al" original, do a search on the Web by using your favorite search engine.

His life started out on October 23, 1959 in Downey, California. Born "Alfred Matthew", he was the only child of Nick and Mary Yankovic. Al was raised in Lynwood in Los Angeles County. Lynwood, which has a population of about 70,000, was a working-class suburb when Al was growing up there.

Al Yankovic has always had a love for music. When he was just seven years old, he began taking accordion lessons. The lessons would last for the next three years. He also learned to play other musical instruments over the years, but the accordion remained Al's favorite.

While he was attending Lynwood High school, Al's grades were "Straight-A's." Obviously he didn't need to keep his nose in the textbooks all the time to earn these grades because he also found time to work part-time giving accordion lessons. Al also found time to write and record song parodies on a cassette player in his bedroom at home. Al sang the comedic words and played the music to his tunes with his accordion. He sent recordings of his songs to a nationally- syndicated disc jockey who went by the moniker "Dr. Demento." The good "doctor" liked Al Yankovic's talents so much that he played some of his songs on the air. The first song Al ever sent Dr. Demento was "Pico and Sepulveda" in 1973.

The only son of Nick and Mary Yankovic graduated from high school when he was sixteen years old in 1976. He held the honor of being the Valedictorian of his class.