My favourite fact about this song is that Don McLean's kids sung it to him constantly and he was very afraid he would accidentally sing Weird Al's lyrics by mistake
Kurt Cobain asked not to make the parody of Nevermind about food. The end result the band loved. As a teenager growing up in the 70s and trying to irritate my parents with rock music I’m sad I didn’t discover that Weird Al song until after my dad died,
🎉❤😂😎👏 there is saying out there somewhere You know when your a successful performing artist is loved by near all when not only are fans are singing Along your lyrics but the PARODY weird Al lyrics too. 😂 Or you know you've made it when u get that call from Weird Al's team wanting to a parody of ur music and or videos.
According to Weird Al's website, Lucasfilm's official response to this song was, "You should've seen the smile on George Lucas' face." They loved it so much, they included the video as a bonus feature in a Star Wars spoofs compilation for the 2011 Blu-ray box set release of the saga.
At Lucasfilm, they know the *song* American Pie. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uAsV5-Hv-7U.html (1971) The kids watching the new Star Wars movies only know the American Pie movie in 1999.
@@HufflepuffBaseball42313 Looked it up and Al recorded the single 20th of April, the movie released 16th of May, and then the single was released June 24. Apparently he used internet spoilers to write it in advance, and a charity advanced screening to confirm and make some smaller edits.
Saw him in concert 3 times, my neighbor was his base guitarist amd gabe us back stage tickets , I was just a little kid , weird al came over to us all three times, said hi to my and my sister talked a little signed our back stage tickets, and left a lasting impression, I ❤ WEIRD AL, still the too 3 concerts I've ever been to 😂😂
Don McClean himself said he had issues remembering his own words to this song and kept singing Weird Al’s version because his kids wouldn’t stop singing it. Lol. That’s how you know it’s good! Weird Al is a genius.
I've screamed at a concert once in my life and that was when Al performed this when I saw him live. I thought the concert was over when suddenly storm troopers came out on the stage. I love this man. I've listened and laughed so much to his songs but this is my favorite.
@@valentinlageot4101 They got out of their own way and allowed skilled writers write without picking everything that would make the movie worse. It was more that Disney ignored Rogue One until it happened to get completed
Actually, Al's tours, over the last few years, are his originals only, no parodies, but he performs one different cover every night. His voice is amazing. There's a bunch on youtube that people who've been able to sneak a video, have posted. Check out his cover of Natural Woman and then Rebel Yell. His range is amazing.
I fell in love with bye bye miss American pie when I heard it on the radio as a teen because the vocals are fantastic. I just found this. Al performs it super close to the original, you could have thought the piano intro was copied right off the cd. A lot of verses even rhyme with the original... He leaves out the next to last verse though, I wish he didn't because it's my favorite (going a bit syncopated), but the original track is 8 minutes so it's completely understandable.
@@user-oq4yk1xd7d Yeah "Yankovic paid $500 to view an advance screening after writing the song, but most of his lyrics were correct, so he made minor changes; the only major change he had to make after the screening of The Phantom Menace was that Anakin did not tell Amidala that he was going to marry her, like Yankovic originally thought."
This is my favorite of his work. Saw this video on cable when it first came out and there were some ladies in the room asking who that was, I said, that is Weird Al. They all did not believe me and one said, "that's not Weird Al, This guy is really good looking" LOL
"The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost" became "met up with Darth Maul, now he's toast." "They caught the last train for the coast" became "Now I'm still here and he's a ghost."
Fun Fact: Weird Al wrote this song using only internet rumors. Lucasfilm wouldn't give him an advanced screening, and when he finally saw the movie, he had to change only two lyrics. He nailed the entire plot of the movie just based on rumors lmao
Weird Al said that he wouldn't have made this song without George Lucas' blessing. So he sent Lucas the unreleased song to see if he liked it. Lucasfilm replied with "you should've seen the smile on George's face when he heard the song for the first time". He loved it and Weird Al was relieved about getting the stamp of approval. BTW, Lucas was not annoyed that Weird Al's song revealed plot point from the yet to be released movie it was based on.
@@nthgth It's episode 1 through 3. The only reference to anything after 3 is "maybe Vader someday later" but Anakin is given the name Vader by Palpatine in episode 3 so that doesn't require the original trilogy.
I know this came out before Phantom Menace, but man... that last shot of several copies of Al standing together... It almost makes me think he predicted Attack Of The Clones.
Don McLean was reportedly pleased with "The Saga Begins", a parody of "American Pie", and told Yankovic that the parody's lyrics sometimes enter his mind during live performances. Could you imagine being at a McLean concert, he screws up, and lets one of these go? Legend
I saw Weird Al in concert last year, and this was his encore performance. And it was on May 4th, Star Wars Day. Before he started the song, he told the audience "May the Fourth be with you" and it was pretty much the best moment of my life.
It's when you notice small details that Al got right too, like freaking TAKING THE PADAWAN BRAID OFF after Qui-Gon died. All of that before the movies were even out. Freaking masterpiece.
I don't think people realize how much work he puts into these creations. I remember seeing one of his videos, I think it was 'Fat' and they ran Michael Jackson's 'Bad' in a split screen, Al did a great job mimicking the original video. It was similar in 'Like a Surgeon' where they have that random lion walking like in Madonna's video.
I've seen Weird Al a few times in concert, and him and his band are amazing. Al is a really good singer and his band are amazing musicians both in and outside of the band. They've been together for about 40 years or so, have no major controversies, and just go to show that you can make it in the music industry and not be a jerk with a million scandals.
Right? How do they all get their instruments to sound like other bands so damn closely? Some earlier songs are hit or miss with that, but starting mid to late 90s they pretty much nail it every time. I'd say you have to be an absolute expert on your instrument to pull that off that well. (And the occasional guest musician _from_ the original band doesn't hurt either, lol)
Seriously. The fact that they can nail any genre or style, plus that they've been together (and with Al) for so long, makes them arguably one of the greatest cover bands in history. Major props to Jim West (guitar), Steve Jay (bass), Rubén Valtierra (keyboard), and Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz (drums). More people need to know who they are.
Well, technically he did it. There were so many adepts of Light side and only a few - of Dark. So he really brought balance between sides of the Force in the galaxy by destroying Jedi Order :)
whats really funny about this song is it came out before the movie did, so weird al wrote the song based on the trailer and internet rumor and still got the story line pretty accurate.
He also paid a lot for a ticket to a premier showing Lucas was putting on to make sure it was correct. He even said in an interview he only had to change a few minor parts in the lyrics to fit the actual plot.
Actually read somewhere that the soundtrack of the movie came before the movie too, and for example one of the songs is titled "Qui-Gon's Noble End" (spoiler alert much). But still great achievement on Al side tho. Also i dont think he predicted the word "midichlorians" like come on.
He's an incredible song writer. They gave Bob Dylan, a songwriter, a Noble Prize for Literature, so I don't think it would be too off the rails to give Weird Al a Nobel Prize for Literature. I personally think his parody, "Trapped In The Drive Through," was a sheer genius analysis of relationship.
The musicianship here - its probably the best 'non-cover' of American Pie ever, apart from being funny as hell. Everything is arranged and played super tight.
That's how Al and his band do it! They all take the musicianship very seriously, making the songs great to listen to even after you go "oh ha ha I get it" to the lyrics, lol
Less than half of the songs on AL's 14 studio albums are parodies. AL is an incredible songwriter. I've been to 3 of his original's only tours and he is an amazing musician.
If I was Don McLean, I would not only be proud of creating one of the best Americana pop songs ever but also one of the best “spoofs” ever. Haha so amazing the way Al treats the songs and even more amazing how the OG artists love them so much.
i heard that Don MacLean himself sometimes thinks of this parody whenever he's singing American Pie on stage, because of how much he and his kids love it.... you know you're doing something right when even the ORIGINAL artist loves your parody!
The cool thing about this parody is that it strikes the same melancholy tone as American Pie. You know it's not going to end well for Anakin. So Al didn't just write a brilliant new set of lyrics, he imbued them with a genuine sense of grief and longing. Especially the idea of this bright kid with all the potential in the world and how innocent he is now. I'm not really a Star Wars fan, but I still feel all the emotions while listening. So I think it's his deepest song.
That was definitely not his intent, haha. Dude just wanted to write a song about a massive pop-culture event by parodying a massive pop-culture staple. He did the same thing on his following album for the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man film, penning "Ode to a Superhero" as a parody of Piano Man.
@@swishfish8858 I dunno, I think Al is pretty deep and smart. I sing this song and ode to a superhero to my 3 year old when he goes to sleep. I think both capture the spirit and moral of the stories. With this, a kid with all the potential in the world ruined by war. In spider man, the great power comes great responsibility, as well as that anyone can be “good enough” to be a hero.
I think the best part of this song is that it's a legitimately good summary of The Phantom Menace. All the major plot points get touched on, and even the weirder beats get brought up in good humor.
I've listened to this song so many times I still get them confused, when American Pie comes on, I sing a line from this, then line from that and it sounds horrible
Thats not a piano, it actually has a much stupider name with about 9 paragraphs of information gathered from extended universe stuff that is no longer canon because disney
This was the first weird al song I ever heard, when I was around 10 years old. Years later, my mom and I saw him in concert and I kept saying "if he doesn't sing the saga begins, I will literally cry" and then the concert was over ??? But no, then he came out for the encore in jedi gear, and it made my whole life. It was so frikkin' cool. 😄❤️ This might be my favorite of all his songs.
As someone who grew up a major Star Wars fan and then who loves Weird Al and of course a rock classic like American Pie every time I see this I get a kick out of it. Weird Al is an absolute genius and if he's not in the RnR HOF he most certainly deserves it.
@@Mike80375 I especially like how the force let Obi-Wan run real fast at the beginning to escape the battle droids but not to go inbetween the sliding red lazer barricades to save qui gon, or how it made the trade federation guys open the door to make sure the jedi were dead immediately after gassing them while they made no attempt to escape despite moments later demonstrating that they can cut thru doors with their lightsabers. Or how the gungans decided to leave their secluded underwater fortress to hide in the woods, basically where the separatist army had landed to hide from them so that padme and everyone would be able to find them and no other reason. Or the examples of masterclass writing in attack of the clones like "Jedi business, go back to your drinks." Clearly the epitome of writing and a demonstration of how George could only improve upon scenes that he recycled from his earlier films.
Fun fact: Weird Al actually wrote the lyrics BEFORE the movie even came out. He got all his information from spoilers and leaks. Impressively, when he saw the movie (as part of a preview screening IIRC), he only had to make minor changes.
It's really a shame, I think the phantom menace would have benefitted greatly from this scene. Obi wan singing in the cantina was beautiful characterization for him. It really shows off his more playful side which we dont see enough of in the prequels.
"We took him there and we told the tale How his midichlorians were off the scale And he might fulfill that prophecy. The council was impressed, of course. Could he bring balance to the force? They interviewed the kid... Oh, training they forbid Because Yoda sensed in him much fear And Qui-Gon said: now listen here! Just stick it in your pointy ear, I still will teach this boy.
Major Damage 69 I disagree. Bob is amazing, and the use of nonsensical palindrome phrases is a perfect parody of Bob Dylan's original. But lyrically, it's not as impressive as this. This is his most successful parody. So much so that Don McLean has stated that he often thinks of Weird Al's lyrics before his own.
I love that this came out before the actually movie premiered for the actors and it gives the entire movie in a few mins of the most perfect remix ever. Most epic redo he has ever done 100% ❤ although party at the CIA is a very close second 🤪
