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- [00:00]
Nathan Rabin
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.
- [00:08]
Audience Member
Sometimes I feel like I need a vacation Sometimes I feel like hey everybody.
- [00:18]
Chris Melanfi
This is Chris Melanthe, host of HiPory Slate's Podcast of Pop chart history. Welcome to the Bridge.
- [00:26]
Audience Member
The I'd Be a Flintstone Now I'll tell you why.
- [00:36]
Chris Melanfi
That's Bedrock anthem by Weird al Yankovic. A 1993 track from his album A Lopalooza. It is a rare Weird Al song that parodies not just one but two songs by the same artist, namely the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It starts with a riff on their 1992 number two pop hit under the Bridge, then segues into a reboot of the Chili's number one alt rock hit, Give It Away, all mashed up with lyrics about that classic cartoon about a Stone Age family, the Flintstones. And these mini episodes bridge our full length monthly episodes, give us a chance to catch up with listeners and enjoy some trivia. And I'm delighted to welcome this month's special guest. In the opening paragraph of his new book, Nathan Rabin writes about eight years ago, I received a direct message on Twitter from my childhood hero, Weird Al Yankovic that changed my life. Al wrote that I of all the writers in the world, he had chosen me to tell his story, unquote. That book, 2012's Weird Al. The book made Rabin one of the world's foremost Al experts, and he's just released another book, the Weird Accordion, to Al that's winning raves from Al fans worldwide. Rabin is a former head writer of the A.V. club, co host of the Travolta Cage podcast, and the author of six books, including both of his books about Yankovic. Nathan Rabin, welcome to the Bridge.
- [02:22]
Nathan Rabin
It is an honor to be here.
- [02:24]
Chris Melanfi
Let's talk about your Weird Al fandom, which I have to imagine goes back quite some time, right? I mean, it has been my observation, and I'm speaking from my own personal experience, that each generation seems to discover Al in their own time, maybe when they hit a certain age. So when was your moment with Weird Al?
- [02:42]
Nathan Rabin
Oh, definitely. Definitely. Al has kind of a lie about that, how every critic's favorite Weird album, the best weird album is whatever was released when they were 12 years old.
- [02:53]
Chris Melanfi
Totally.
- [02:54]
Nathan Rabin
Yeah. So I'm proud to say that I got in a little bit young. I remember, geez, the first three albums that I ever got that my dad bought for me and these were album albums, records. Beautiful, beautiful pieces of vinyl were Michael Jackson's Thriller, Huey Lewis and the New Sports and Weird Al in 3D, collectively, this set the bar so high that no other albums could possibly meet it. And I mean that I still think that in 3D is the best album that Al has ever done. And then the very first album concert that I ever went to was Weird Al opening for the Monkees. And I went in there and I was primarily a Monkees fan, but my God, he blew the Monkeys off stage. And that similarly set the bar so incredibly high that no other concerts by non Weird Al artists could possibly match it. And then, yeah, I sort of read about this in the book, but I had kind of a giving tree relationship with Al where at every stage of my life and my career, he was there. So when I started writing for the A.V. club in the late 90s, I got to meet him backstage. That was a very, very, very exciting experience, you know. And then, yeah, he asked me to write his book about 12 years later. And I was actually writing another book at the time about Fish and Insane Clown Posse. And I was the head writer of the A.V. club, so I should not have written this book. But I could not say no to Weird Al Yankovic. And then, yeah, he was putting out a box set, squeeze box, a 15 disc, career spanning box set. Ended up winning the gram best packaging. And it was so expensive that I thought if I write a book about this, then I can write it all off of my taxes and end up being this amazing, amazing adventure that took three years to finish. But my God, I am so unbelievably happy and proud. And he not only wrote the introduction for it, he also fact checked it and he copy edited it. He was so mortified by my grammar, by all of my word crimes, that he offered his services as a cunning linguist to help me distinguish what's proper English.
- [05:01]
Chris Melanfi
What a mensch.
- [05:02]
Nathan Rabin
Yeah, I was very, very lucky. So every stage in my life, Weird Al has been there for me.
- [05:07]
Chris Melanfi
That's amazing. There's so much in that I relate to, not least the fact that his live show is truly amazing. I'm embarrassed to admit I've seen it twice, but only in the last decade. And God, I've rarely had so much fun as I have at those two shows. So in the episode, I talk not only about Weird Al, that's kind of the second half of my most recent Hit Parade episode, but I talk about antecedents to Al. I cited not just as backstory for Al, but really to talk about the history of novelty music on the charts in general. And among the people I point to are Spike Jonze. Alan Sherman, Tom Lehrer, and of course, Dr. Demento, who was not a charting artist himself, but helped break people. How did Al synthesize all of these novelty music pioneers?
- [05:50]
Nathan Rabin
Well, he kind of took what was best about each of them, and he learned from their example, but he also learned what not to do. For example, Alan Sherman is a fascinating, fascinating figure.
- [06:00]
Chris Melanfi
Huge.
- [06:01]
Nathan Rabin
And that he was huge, like for a couple of years there.
- [06:05]
Chris Melanfi
Hello, mother, hello Father. Three number one albums back to back to back in 1962 and 63.
- [06:13]
Nathan Rabin
And then Alan Sherman, he kind of lost it all through this Dionysian excess. You know, he's just a very careless man with how he conducted his career, with how he conducted his personal life. He ended up dying very, very early. And I think Al kind of learned from that. He learned what not to do. He learned to be careful, to be cautious, to be deliberate and meticulous. And how he sort of has planned and executed his career. He learned so much from Dr. Demento. I mean, you look at Al, and he's a TV guy, obviously that's the source of a lot of his sort of biggest hits, his most popular songs. But he's also a radio guy. And he has an A in our mind and an A in our sense of not only what will be successful, but what will endure. You know, if you look at Al's career like he's only really ever parodied a non hit once. And that was a song, Ruthless People by Mick Jagger. And you can know that it's not a hit because it's a Mick Jagger solo song. It's not a Rolling Stone song. So that's part of it. And also, I mean, you just talk about, you know, stuff like Bedrock Anthem. You think about, you know, not just the Flintstones, which obviously is a huge thing, which has, you know, enormous, enormous popularity and cultural resonance, but he was well on the way to being a movie.
- [07:31]
Chris Melanfi
Good point.
- [07:31]
Nathan Rabin
And also, I mean, like Frank Zappa, I think there's that sense of outrageousness, button pushing, provocation. So what he did was he kind of took all of these different influences and just kind of created this sort of super beast, you know, sort of like the. The perfect, the perfect novelty artist. I almost feel bad calling him a novelty artist because I feel like that is limiting. And I feel like what he's done over the course of his career is he's transcended in a way that almost no other artists have.
- [08:00]
Chris Melanfi
Yeah, I would agree. I'm glad you talked about how Al evolved over time. A little bit Because I wanted to touch on that as well. One of my favorite Weird Al moments was when he guested on the Simpsons. He did a guest voice on the Simpsons. I think he did it a couple times. And if I remember correctly, it was his first. Right. It was his first appearance. And it is revealed in the episode that Homer, of course, is a Weird Al fan. And that Homer has been sending Weird Al his own Weird Al style parody songs. And all of them are food related.
- [08:28]
Nathan Rabin
Did you ever get to parody song I sent you?
- [08:31]
Chris Melanfi
Yes. Which one was better Living La Pizza Loca or Another One Bites the Crust? They were pretty much the same Homer. The riff being, of course, that Al has done himself so many food related songs. But you, in some of your work have identified that Al has actually thematically moved decade by decade. Do you want to talk about that for a minute?
- [08:50]
Nathan Rabin
Oh, definitely. I think one of the things that makes sort of Al unique and fascinating is I feel like he's kind of a representation of the monoculture of this time in American history when people knew the same TV shows and the same movies and the same songs. So he kind of, in the 1980s when Al emerged, sort of his main themes were television and food. You know, food was literally all he ate the entire decade. And yeah, the 1980s, nothing was bigger than television. You know, television told us who we were. Television sold things to us. Television, you know, gave us the secrets to life. And yeah, during that time, that was kind of Al's obsession. And then in the 90s, sort of as he got older, his sort of stuff became a little more calculating, a little bit more opportunistic. And that was kind of his movie age where he had songs about Forrest Gump, you had songs about Jurassic park, you had, most famously, the Saga Begins, which is a beloved, hilarious song about one of the worst things of all time, which is the plot and characters of the Phantom Menace. And then, you know, as the aughts approached, that kind of began his computer age. You know, sort of television was supplanted by the Internet. YouTube replaced MTV. And as a result, Al's reigning obsession became computers and technology and the Internet and how it simultaneously makes our lives better and worse and a whole lot more ridiculous. And yeah, that's kind of been the source of a lot of his best and most resonant sort of late period hits like White Nerdy, like It's all about the Pentium.
- [10:28]
Audience Member
I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him Money for Short up at home and I make him do my tech support. It's all about the pantyhose.
- [10:35]
Chris Melanfi
What?
- [10:36]
Nathan Rabin
So, yeah, as culture has changed, Al has changed with it, you know, and.
- [10:40]
Chris Melanfi
As that Simpsons joke also indicates, this is the gag, right, is that all of Homer's ideas for parody songs are terrible, but it makes the point that truly witty parody is actually hard. So what do you think makes Al's parodies in particular so effective and exceptional?
- [10:56]
Nathan Rabin
I feel like with Al, there's always more going on than just what's on the layer or what's on the surface. I mean, take Amish paradise, for example. Part of what makes it such a great song and such a funny song and such as the versive song is that it's about not just a powerful song, an important song, but two powerful, important songs. The Coolio song that it's parodying, and then the Stevie Wonder song that that song is sampling. And again, you kind of look at a Russian doll element of Al where he's parodying something that's sampling something that's referencing some other thing. So again, that's fascinating to me. So you kind of have this gospel majesty to a very, very silly song that fundamentally is about religious hypocrisy, which is about arrogance, which is about, you know, the faithful having this piety that's also ridiculous, you know, and that's also self absorbed and arrogant.
- [11:54]
Audience Member
It's hard work and sacrifice. Living in an Amish paradise We sell quilts at disc Living in an Amish paradise A local boy kicked me in the butt last week I just smiled at him and I turned the other cheeks.
- [12:11]
Nathan Rabin
And I feel like the thing we haven't really talked about that's the core of his appeal, is nostalgia. You know, I feel like a lot of people, they discover Al when they're very, very young, and they have enormous nostalgia from that period in their lives, you know. But there's that double nostalgia. Cause it's not just for the songs that Al did. It's for the songs that he parodied. You know, he's overlapped with so many, you know, sort of huge cultural things, Whether it's sty Star wars with Jurassic park, it's Yoda. I mean, even like, you know, even Buckingham Blues. Like a very silly, you know, kind of album cut from his first cd like that has any resonance because there's a whole new drama going on with the royal, ah, being heir to the throne.
- [12:53]
Audience Member
Well, it must be awful hard, you.
- [12:56]
Nathan Rabin
Know, so no matter what's happening in pop culture, there is a weird Al song that references it very, very directly. Almost to an uncanny degree.
- [13:05]
Chris Melanfi
Let us not forget that when he did I Lost on Jeopardy, that was actually a nostalgia play, too, because Jeopardy. At that moment hadn't been rebooted with Alex Trebek. So he was calling back to the, you know, Don Pardo and Art Fleming version of the show. There's nostalgia there, too. Yeah.
- [13:20]
Nathan Rabin
Oh, definitely. Oh, and you look at, like, George of the Jungle, which, you know, again, that's so true to kind of Weird Al and his aesthetic that, like, when I heard it on, I believe, the Dare To Be Stupid album, I'm like, oh, this. This is a song that Weird Al created. And it was almost like by covering that song, he was, like, willing sort of a movie adaptation into existence. And by alchemizing all these different things, he's been able to create a lasting career in a field where everything is supposed to be ephemeral.
- [13:51]
Chris Melanfi
So, speaking of Al and his career, let's talk about a little bit about the charts and where his career could go from here if it goes anywhere now that he's entering his 60s. I guess what I find interesting about Al possibly entering retirement is the idea that there's never been a better moment for an artist who paints with his, you know, brushes and canvas. Right? Yeah. Video makes things go viral. Snark and wit and little quirky things right up to the song that's number one as we record this. The Box by Roddy Ricch bustin all.
- [14:23]
Nathan Rabin
The bells out the box. I just hit a lick with the box. Had to put the steak in the box.
- [14:28]
Chris Melanfi
You know, quirky things make songs go to number one. Now. Do you think Al is thinking about this? He certainly thought about it in 2014 when Mandatory Fun became his first and thus far, only number one album. Do you think there's a place for Al in the chart world of the 2020s?
- [14:42]
Nathan Rabin
I definitely think there's a place for Al in the chart world of the 2020s. I think, again, to go back to a recurring theme, Al has executed for incredible care and craft and meticulousness. And I feel like the longer that he's away, the more pressure there is on an album. Al has joked that every album is basically a comeback album because he's either been away for a little bit or he didn't get a hit on the last one. So, yeah, I definitely feel like there's a place for him. I feel like he's in this enviable situation where he doesn't need to release new music to tour, he doesn't need to release New music to do talk shows. He has this really nice, really lovely life and he also has this formula for crafting albums. And usually when you talk about formula in terms of entertainment, it's in a negative way, it's in a pejorative sense. With Al, it works like he's figured out a way to make albums to retain relevant and popular and funny and important. And so yeah, I feel like for him to release a new album, there has to be a batch of new pop songs and he really connects with that, he really engages with. I think I spoke in the book about how when it comes to, to the pop world and the people he parodies, he's like Matthew McConaughey and Dazed and Confused, you know, where he gets older and they stay the same age. So you're Talking about a 60 year old Grammy winning legend having to listen to obnoxious pop songs. And it's thinking, is there something here that I can grapple onto? Is there something that's funny? Is there an angle? Is there a perspective? Is there a tack that I can take? Can I make this about burritos some way? So yeah. So there are so many different things going on. Hope to hell that he puts out another album. I also feel like when I sent him the weird Accordion Al book, I wanted to impress him with how grammatically correct it was and he was like, oh my God, this is horrifying. I'm going to take several days to go and fix this for you. An ostensible professional writer. And my fear is that he was going to take that time and go to the woods and record his masterpiece. But he's like, instead, I'm going to fix this moron's commas. I hope that I single handedly did not prevent him from releasing a comeback album. But I agree, I think there would be an enormous audience for it. I feel like, you know, he was received with 2014's album as kind of a conquering hero. And I feel like his stature and his prestige has only increased in the ensuing years.
- [17:23]
Chris Melanfi
Well, I certainly hope, Nathan, that you haven't single handedly prevented Al from creating his next masterpiece. But I hope it does.
- [17:30]
Nathan Rabin
I would feel very, very gifted.
- [17:32]
Chris Melanfi
You've certainly given him plenty to do. At the very least fixing your word crimes.
- [17:36]
Nathan Rabin
Sure.
- [17:37]
Chris Melanfi
Thank you so much, Nathan for joining me for this episode of the Bridge. And can you tell us where folks can find you online?
- [17:43]
Nathan Rabin
Oh, sure, sure, sure. You can find me at Nathan Raven's Happy Place, which is my website. I devote all of my time and energy to it. It was kind of the incubator from which the weird accordion Al came from. It's NathanRabin.com, N-A-T-H-A-N R-A B-I-N.com and then I've got the Travolta Cage podcast with my friend Clint Worthington where we talk about all of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage's movies in order, which is a pretty amazing, pretty fun, pretty crazy experience so far.
- [18:13]
Chris Melanfi
I just listened to the episode where you guys talked about Urban Cowboy yesterday, and I must say, it was very entertaining. All right, well, Nathan, thank you so much for joining me on the Bridge.
- [18:23]
Nathan Rabin
Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. Thanks for having me on.
- [18:28]
Chris Melanfi
Now comes the time in every Hit Parade, the Bridge episode where we do some trivia. And joining me on the line from Bellingham, Washington, is Neva Coates. Hey, Neva.
- [18:37]
Neva Coates
Hello.
- [18:38]
Chris Melanfi
How are you?
- [18:39]
Neva Coates
I'm good. Very excited.
- [18:41]
Chris Melanfi
My understanding is you saw my 2019 live hit parade show in Seattle, Washington, Is that right?
- [18:48]
Neva Coates
Yes, we made a whole day of it.
- [18:50]
Chris Melanfi
So you were at the live show and at all my live shows, I asked live trivia questions, and people from the audience answer those trivia questions. Why didn't you answer one of my trivia questions?
- [19:01]
Neva Coates
Well, I didn't really have the confidence at the time. I was a bit shy, and it was fun, but frustrating because I knew almost all the answers. So that prompted me to join Slate. But it was just a lovely evening.
- [19:19]
Chris Melanfi
It was a lovely evening. But I must say, that particular live show, the Seattle live show, I think only something like three out of my nine contestants got the questions right. I wish we had asked you a question because I would have liked to get, you know, one more correct answer that night.
- [19:34]
Neva Coates
Yes. Yes. The one that stands out for some reason is John Lennon, because the person up there got it wrong. I'm like, oh, I knew that one.
- [19:42]
Chris Melanfi
Which reminds me to mention, you're now a Slate plus member. So on these Hit Parade the Bridge episodes, you can be a trivia contestant. And this is the moment in every episode where I remind our listeners that that while this bridge episode is available to all Hit Parade subscribers, we only open our trivia rounds to Slate plus members. So if you are a member and would like to be a Trivia contestant, visit slate.com hitparadesignup that's slate.com hitparadesignUp so, Neva, as you probably remember, on all of our prior Bridge episodes, we're going to ask you three trivia questions. The first is going to be a callback to our most recent full length episode of Hit Parade. And the next two are going to be a preview of the next episode. Are you ready for some trivia?
- [20:29]
Neva Coates
I am ready.
- [20:30]
Chris Melanfi
All right, here we go. Question one. Last month we talked about several serious rock titans who scored their biggest chart hit with a novelty single. Which of these legends did not hit their peak on the Hot 100 with a one off comedy hit? A, Bob Dylan, B Chuck Berry, C, Johnny Cash. Or D, Bo Diddley.
- [20:57]
Neva Coates
Let's see. That has to be A. Bob Dylan.
- [21:00]
Chris Melanfi
And you are correct. The correct answer is A, Bob Dylan. While some consider his 1966 hit Rainy Day Women, number 12 and 35 a novelty, it only spent one week at number two on the Hot 100.
- [21:16]
Audience Member
So all alone, everybody must get the year before.
- [21:23]
Chris Melanfi
His like a Rolling Stone spent two weeks at number two. But Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash and Bo Diddley all scored their biggest pop hits with My Ding a ling, a boy named sue and say man, respectively. Excellent. You're one for one. Neva. Ready for question two?
- [21:42]
Neva Coates
Ready.
- [21:43]
Chris Melanfi
Here we go. Question two. Which of these artists, all Rock and roll hall of Fame inductees, strung together the most consecutive number one hits in Hot 100 history? A, the Supremes, B, the Beatles, C, the Bee Gees? Or D, Whitney Houston.
- [22:05]
Neva Coates
Wow, that's a tough one. I just gut instinct. I'm going with D. Whitney Houston. Whitney Houston.
- [22:16]
Chris Melanfi
Your gut is correct. The correct answer is D. Whitney Houston. Between October 1985 and April 1988, Whitney strung together seven straight number ones on the Hot 100. When she scored the seventh of those chart toppers, she broke out of a tie with the Beatles and the Bee Gees with six apiece. Excellent. You're running the table so far. Neva, you ready for question three?
- [22:39]
Neva Coates
Three ready.
- [22:40]
Chris Melanfi
Here we go. Question three. After her 1980s peak, Whitney Houston continued to score chart hits into the 21st century. What was her last top 10 hit on the Hot 100? A, I have nothing. B Exhale shoop shoop. C my love is your love or D, the Star Spangled Band.
- [23:10]
Neva Coates
The only one I know of those is D, the Star Spangled Banner because we just had the super bowl and that's where she sang it and she knocked it out of the park.
- [23:19]
Chris Melanfi
So D, and you knocked it out of the park. The correct answer is D, the Star spangled Banner. First recorded for the 1991 Super Bowl, Houston's now legendary recording of our national anthem. Return to the Hot 100. After the 911 attacks in 2001, when it reached a new peak of number six. For the record, Exhale Shoop Shoop was her last number one in 1995. And my love Is yous Love was her last top five hit in 2000. A perfect score. Phenomenal. Neva, you must be thrilled.
- [23:53]
Neva Coates
I am thrilled. That was a lot of fun.
- [23:57]
Chris Melanfi
Now I understand that even though you have now run a perfect score, you have the chance to increase your perfection by stumping me with a trivia question. Do you have a question for me?
- [24:07]
Neva Coates
Yes, I do. Whitney Houston's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner was the first version of the song to be certified platinum or to hit the Billboard top 10. But one honor, Whitney's national anthem does not hold. It isn't the longest. Who boasts the record for the longest version of the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl? Is it A, Natalie Cole in 1994, B, Faith Hill in 2000, C, Alicia Keys in 2013, or D, Idina Menzel in 2015?
- [24:42]
Nathan Rabin
Wow.
- [24:43]
Chris Melanfi
Did not see that question coming. And my chart knowledge is not going to help here. So I have to take a guess.
- [24:51]
Neva Coates
That's what I did.
- [24:53]
Chris Melanfi
Yeah. And maybe because I have her on the brain right now, because I just watched the Grammy Awards a couple weeks ago, I'm just going to go ahead and guess. C. Alicia Keys.
- [25:03]
Neva Coates
Correct. Her rendition on the piano clocked in at 155 seconds.
- [25:09]
Audience Member
Oh, say can you see?
- [25:17]
Neva Coates
Whitney's memorable version lasted 116 seconds, which is remarkable because.
- [25:23]
Chris Melanfi
Because a detail I'm going to talk about in our next episode is that they added one beat per measure to Whitney's version. So her version is in 4. 4. Whereas our national anthem originally is in Walt's time, which is 3. 4. So in theory, Whitney should have taken longer, but go figure, Alicia Keys was actually longer. Well, Neva, it was a good day for both of us, you and me, because we got all of our trivia questions right, we can both hold our heads up high. And I just want to thank you for being on Hit Parade, the Bridge.
- [25:53]
Neva Coates
Absolutely. My pleasure. Can't wait to hear the next episode.
- [25:59]
Chris Melanfi
So, as the last two questions of that trivia round indicated, our next full length episode is going to be about Whitney Houston and chart crossover this month. February 2020 is the 8th anniversary of Whitney Houston's death. And and notably, she is about to be inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. There's been a lot of biographical material produced about Whitney since her passing, including two back to back documentaries about her story. And frankly, none of this biographical material, I feel, has done justice to her amazing chart feats. Not just the feats themselves, but what they say about her career. These chart phenomena say as much about Whitney's relationship to fame, her fans and race as the more lurid details of her biography do. So in our next hit parade, we're gonna walk through her amazing chart records, including some that I have not seen chronicled in any biographical information about her, and talk about what it tells us about Whitney Houston's amazing, amazing career. My thanks again to Nathan Rabin for joining me for this episode of the Bridge. And this episode was produced by Asha Soludja. I'm Chris Melanfi. Keep on Marching on the one.