Just forget the words and sing along

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

A Brief History of Weird Al on the Internet

So, in the latest news in regards to "Weird Al" Yankovic's new album, Weird Al has now launched Don't Download This Song.com, where you can download his first single, Don't Download This Song in a much higher quality MP3 than on Weird Al's MySpace Page.

Acutally, this got me thinking.... "Weird Al" Yankovic went online around the same time I did, so let's take a look back at some of the more notable acheivments of Weird Al in Internet history.

Spring 1996 - In the liner notes of Bad Hair Day, there's the little note, "Check out Bermuda's home page." When you swing by the url www.loop.com/~bermuda (link no longer works), you find the home page of Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, Weird Al's drummer. Bermuda's home page is completely dedicated to Weird Al, detailing the new album and Weird Al's upcoming concert.

Fall 1996 - Bermuda's home page becomes the Official "Weird Al" Yankovic website, and moves to www.weirdal.com. Bermuda remains as the webmaster - a position he holds to this very day.

Fall 1997 - With the launch of The Weird Al Show, the website becomes your place for everything you want to know about the show.

May 1999 - To tie-in with the new album, Weird Al launches www.thesagabegins.com (link no longer works), which was a pretty spot-on parody of the Official Star Wars Website, cirrca 1999. While there, you can watch the video for The Saga Begins in streaming video, and read up on how the first single from Running with Scissors came to be.

July 1999 - Weird Al does it again, launching www.itsallaboutthepentiums.com (link no longer works), where you can watch the video for It's All About the Pentiums in streaming video, and download some nifty things.

Spring 2003 - Being all the way in Japan, I lean pretty heavily on wierdal.com to get all my news on Poodle Hat.

May 2006 - When Weird Al is forced to drop a song from his upcoming album, he makes it a free download from weirdal.com. The song is You're Pitiful.

June 2006 - Like everyone else in the world, Weird Al launches a MySpace page.

August 2006 - Weird Al makes the first single from his new album, the song Don't Donwload this Song, a free download at his MySpace page. The music video goes up at Yahoo! Music the next day.

Wow. This internet thing rocks.

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