Greatest Songs Of 2006

Blender
January/February 2007
by Josh Eells

76
"WHITE AND NERDY"
WEIRD AL YANKOVIC

A WANKSTA... AND PROUD OF IT!

Weird Al Yankovic has an architecture degree from Cal Poly. He's fluent in HTML. He graduated from high school at age 16 -- as the valedictorian. "I grew up playing the accordion," Yankovic says. "I've been doing research for 'White and Nerdy' my entire life. Yankovic decided to spoof Chamillionaire's "Ridin'" after hearing it "nonstop" on his local Top 40 station. From there it was just a matter of swapping lyrics about Hennessy and po-po for ones about Klingons, JavaScript and vector calculus. The parody gave Yankovic the first Top 10 hit of his 28-year career, winning the hearts of millions of AV-Clubbers, not to mention one Houston MC. "Chamillionaire was thrilled," Yankovic says. "He feels it's a sign of megastardom -- he's got his platinum album, and now he's got his Weird Al parody."