Songoftheday 7/10/13 - How come your always such a fussy old man, don't want no Captain Crunch don't want no raisin bran...

Weird Al Yankovic - "Eat It"
from the album In 3-D (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's Song of the Day is by pop music's master of parody, "Weird" Al Yankovic, who grew up in a musical household led by his polka-king father Frank. But instead of following totally in his father's footsteps he took his accordion and started making comedy mocks of popular hit songs, which first got noticed on the Dr. Demento show at the start of the decade. After a set of locally successful indie releases, Al was sign to Scotti Brothers (home of Survivor) and released his self-titled debut full-length in 1983. A rewrite of the Toni Basil #1 hit "Mickey" as "Ricky" (spoofing the 50s show I Love Lucy) scored him his first pop hit that year.

For his second album, Al grabbed for an even higher-profile song to parody, and nothing at that time could be bigger than Michael Jackson. So, with subbing producer Rick Derringer on guitar and an uncanny reproduction of the video (albeit with comic asides), "Eat It" proved to be an epic in the comedy music world as "Beat It" would be in the pop world....

"Eat It" became Weird Al's first big pop hit, reaching the top-20 in April of 1984. Overseas, he was able to make the top-40 in the UK, and even topped the singles chart in Australia (something Jackson's original didn't do). His album would end up selling over a million copies, and his presence on MTV (and soon in film) would give Al the A-list status as the people he's parodying.

Up tomorrow: a reggae group channels "the Jazz Singer" and comes up with a double-time hit.