Why Paul McCartney Didn’t Want Weird Al Yankovic to Record a Parody of One of His Songs
Weird Al Yankovic has made popular parodies of songs by dozens of artists, including Michael Jackson, Madonna, Queen, Green Day, and Lady Gaga. While receiving a parody version of a song from Weird Al is a badge of honor for many, Paul McCartney didn’t want the American singer to cover one of his songs after hearing what it would be about.
Weird Al Yankovic has recorded a few parodies of The Beatles
While the genre of parody music isn’t a competitive field, Weird Al is the king of it. Weird Al Yankovic, recently portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, is a multiple grammy award-winning artist who specializes in parodies of classic and modern music. Many of his most popular songs include “Amish Paradise,” a parody of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” and “Like a Surgeon,” a parody of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.”
While The Beatles would be an easy target for parody, considering how iconic their music is, Yankovic has only spoofed the band a few times. The first Beatles parody arrived in 1996 with “Gee, I’m a Nerd,” a spoof on the band’s “Free as a Bird.” In 2017, he debuted a previously unreleased song called “Pac-Man,” a parody of “Taxman” from The Beatles’ Revolver album.
Paul McCartney said no to a Weird Al Yankovic parody
While Yankovic mostly works alone, he still has to get permission from other artists to parody their songs. In an interview with Conan O’Brien, Weird Al revealed that not every artist has given him the go-ahead, and one of those artists was Paul McCartney. According to the “Fat” singer, he wanted to do a parody of “Live and Let Die” from the James Bond movie of the same name. He wanted to call it “Chicken Pot Pie,” but McCartney wasn’t into the idea since he is a strict vegetarian.
“Paul didn’t want me to do it because he’s a strict vegetarian, and he didn’t want a parody that condoned the consumption of animal flesh,” Yankovic said. “He said, ‘You can do something else like tofu pot pie.’ I said, ‘No, the chorus of my song will be ‘Bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk’ and tofu doesn’t make any noise. It’s not going to work.”
McCartney publicly replied, saying his wife Linda would never allow him to support a song that “celebrates the killing of chickens.” In a later interview on The B.S. Report podcast, Yankovic said he understood McCartney’s reasoning, and he doesn’t want people to think that the former Beatle is a humorless bore.
“It’s a valid reason, and I get it,” Yankovic stated. “And I hate it when people put him on the list of humorless guys because that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, he said: ‘Think of any other subject, and I’m happy to okay it.’”
McCartney is not the only artist to reject Yankovic
Paul McCartney is not the only famous singer to reject a cover from Weird Al. The parody singer also was denied by Michael Jackson. Yankovic did get permission to record parodies of “Beat it” and “Bad,” but Jackson didn’t want him doing a cover of “Black or White,” one of his more political tracks.
“I considered parodying ‘Black or White,’” Yankovic revealed via Express. “Michael wasn’t quite so into it because he thought Black or White was more of a message song, and he didn’t feel as comfortable with a parody of that one, which I completely understood.”
