World of Weird Al Yankovic

Posted: **Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:05 am**

For all you Happy Birthday lovers:

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Grant Baciocco

Funny Musicians For A Serious Cause

E-Mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.FunnyMusicians.com

For Immediate Release

Weird Al Yankovic Contributes Rare Track To

Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon Vol. 2 - Hurricane Relief Charity CD

International comedy music Super-Star, Weird Al Yankovic will
lend the rare Placebo Records version of his song HAPPY BIRTHDAY to
Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon Vol. 2. 100% of the profits of the CD
will go to the American Red Cross to aid in relief for the victims of
Hurricane Katrina.

Grant Baciocco, who is co-producing the CD along with Jaye
Prior, is excited to have Weird Al aboard. We have an incredible
line-up of funny musicians on this CD, says Baciocco, With the
addition of Weird Al, this truly makes it a CD of the very best in
Comedy Music. Joining Al on the CD his drummer, Jon Bermuda
Schwartz, with his newly remixed version of MR. GHOST GOES TO TOWN
and comedy music legends Barnes & Barnes (writers of the song FISH
HEADS) with the unreleased song GRANNY & THE KID. The CD will also
include a special written introduction by legendary DJ Dr. Demento.
Other comedy music stars on the CD will include Steven Banks, Carla
Ulbrich, Rob Paravonian, Barry & The Bookbinders and the great Luke
Ski. Also included will be an exclusive episode of the popular
Podcast, The Radio Adventures Of Dr. Floyd. There will be a limited
pressing of only 1,000 of these CDs.

Funny musicians For A Serious cause began in the aftermath of
the attacks of September 11, 2001. In the weeks that followed there
didnt seem to be much room for laughter in this nation. Grant
Baciocco, along with fellow funny music maker Chris Mezzolesta,
decided that they could use their talents and create a Funny Music
Compilation CD to benefit a charity related to the tragic events.
The first Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon CD raised close to $2000 for
the Twin Towers Orphan Fund and continues to make money for the
charity today.

Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon Vol. 2 will be available through
the groups website - http://www.FunnyMusicians.com - and is
scheduled for release in mid-November. The first volume of Laughter
Is A Powerful Weapon is also available at the website.

This will be a must have for all comedy music fans, let alona Al fans!

Kristi

I wasn't sure if I could post this elsewhere? Or is this enough to get all Al fans united behind this worthy cause???

Posted: **Tue Oct 11, 2005 5:57 am**

That's good news. Toasterboy made a topic for it in General Chat. But we'll combine the two topics once it's not news anymore.

Posted: **Tue Oct 11, 2005 6:46 pm**

Happy Birthday is awesome, I like the demo version. Gotta love that accordion solo!

Posted: **Sat Oct 15, 2005 2:59 pm**

Hey!!!! Its going to be Al's birthday on the 23rd!!!! Thats cool!!!

Posted: **Sun Oct 23, 2005 8:30 pm**

This song polkas. And I'm gonna be listening to it a lot today.

Posted: **Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:45 pm**

Does anyone have any music by Tonio K. I've never heard of this artist before and I was curious how close of a style parody it was.

Posted: **Thu Dec 28, 2006 9:18 pm**

TMBJon @ Jun 25 2006, 04:45 PM wrote: Does anyone have any music by Tonio K. I've never heard of this artist before and I was curious how close of a style parody it was.

I highly recommend Life in the Food Chain. "Happy Birthday" is very similar in its lyrics and vocal stylings (in the verses at least) to "Funky Western Civilization" from that album. The music is quite different, however.

I'm curious about the different versions of this song. I know of 3 (and for the record, I much prefer version 1 to 2):

1. Placebo EP version
2. WAY album version
3. Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon Vol. 2 remix

Is the version on Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes #2 the Placebo EP version, or possibly another demo/live version?

Posted: **Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:14 am**

It's the Placebo version, which can also be found on PR:AITB. Those are the only three versions I'm aware of.

Dave

Posted: **Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:25 am**

TMBJon @ Jun 25 2006, 10:45 AM wrote: Does anyone have any music by Tonio K. I've never heard of this artist before and I was curious how close of a style parody it was.

I remember Al played a Tonio K song when he did his "takeover" of XM 80s on 8 (on 9/26, when SOL was released)... entitled "I Handle Snakes"... cool song. After he played it, he states, "Tonio's actually one of my favorite artists. I've ripped him off many times... many times."

Adrian

Posted: **Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:59 am**

I remember that I first heard this song on my 11th birthday. I got two CD's of Al's that I already had from a friend, and then went to exchange them at Tower, and WAY was one of the CD's I got. I remember feeling happy hearing a birthday song written by Al on my birthday.