The Not Al Page

The most popular songs he didn't even write (or perform)!

FAQ:

Q: May I email you some song titles that I've seen mis-attributed to Al?

A: Of course! But first please keep in mind that there are probably thousands of songs out there that have, at one time or another, been mis-attributed to Weird Al. So obviously I can't list them all. I can't even list all of the songs titles that are emailed to me. To do this would make The List so incredibly huge as to be almost useless. This list is designed to be a reference for the songs that are most commonly mis-attributed to Weird Al. Second, one of the primary goals of this site is to provide reliable information. After all, The List was started because of all the misinformation out there regarding which songs Al has written/performed and which ones he hasn't. The List would be far less useful if it contained inaccurate or extraneous information.

How is it decided which songs get listed on the page and which ones don't? It's a pretty simple process. Someone sends me an email with a suggestion for a song that they think should be added to the list. I take that song title and do a search for it in one of the many popular peer-to-peer file sharing programs. If the song shows up in the results and is mis-attributed to Weird Al, then it's added to the list. Otherwise, not. If the song you suggested didn't make it to The List and you'd like me to reconsider, just send me another email with the suggested song a week or two later and I'll be happy to run the search again.

Q: I've been looking on like every web page for <name of song>. Can you send it to me or tell me where I can get it? I like upholstery.

A: No. I've only heard perhaps a few of the songs on the Not-Al list. Of those few, I have even less stored on my hard drive. Most likely I don't even have the song to send you. Even if I had every single song in the universe instantly accessible to me on my computer, my connection to the internet is a 28.8 modem, which is not quite speedy enough to be blasting MP3s across the internet at will.

Q: Are you sure Weird Al didn't write <name of song on the list>? It sounds just like him! Are you really sure????

A: Yes, I am sure. Well, relatively sure anyway. Originally, the first incarnation of The List had a couple of songs on there that were, in fact, performed by Al. But I've since removed them. In addition, according to the statistics, an average of 40 people view the Not Al page per day, and almost half of them get here from weirdal.com. I think it's fairly likely that most of those visitors are ardent fans. So, with at least a dozen and a half dedicated Weird Al fans browsing The List every day, it's probably a safe bet that any of the songs actually performed by Al have been caught by now.

Q: How can I tell whether or not a particular song was performed by Weird Al or not?

A: First, many people make the mistake in assuming that if the artist sounds like Weird Al, then it must obviously be him.

Friends, I would like to politely inform you that this is not necessarily the case. I too have fallen prey to this unscientific line of thinking. If the song you have doesn't appear on The List, these steps outline a couple of other options available to you.

1. The first thing to do is check out the Catalogue on the official "Weird Al" Yankovic Website. The Catalogue contains a list of all official Al albums to date. If the song does not appear there, it's a pretty good bet that the song you hold in your hand is not of the Quality Yankovic variety.
   
   
2. Second, try scoping out some third-party discographies. These are almost always pretty good sources of info. Google has a whole bunch of sites hosting Weird Al discographies.
   
   
3. If the song doesn't turn up on any discographies and you still think it's a Weird Al song, try putting the song title or a portion of the lyrics into a common web search engine and see what it spits out. Some of Al's creations never make it onto an album. Maybe it's a concert recording of an unreleased song or some skit from a TV show or movie. If this is the case, then some fan has almost certainly stumbled upon it before you and has documented it on their website already.

Q: Why should I bother changing the filenames of my songs that are wrongly credited to Weird Al? How can *I* make any kind of difference when almost everyone out there doesn't know or care that Al didn't perform the songs?

A: In the beginning, I had a list of songs that I was positively certain were not written or performed by Al but were credited to him all the same. In order to find out who did them, I had to do it the hard way: lots and lots of research. I thought that it was a crock that one had to go to this length just to add a little bit of accuracy to their playlist, so I decided to put the results of my research online. I figured that if just one or two people found it and used it to their advantage then my effort was well worth it.

At the time of this writing, the Not Al page has had almost 18,000 visits and well over a hundred emails, about half of which are suggestions for the page with the other half being messages of thanks. Bermuda's official Weird Al site lists a link to the Not Al page in a fairly prestigious location and the Not Al page has even been farked once. I think it's safe to say that I've made a difference. Not an especially huge or outstanding difference I'll admit, but much more than I ever anticipated in the beginning. But how much of a difference would it have made if I wouldn't have done anything at all? My point in all of this is that as long as you just sit around and wonder whether you can make a change, it's pretty much guaranteed that you won't. On the other hand, once you've made up your mind to spread the truth, you'll find that the truth will eventually start spreading itself.

With the internet as huge as it is today, fighting the wealth of bad information is a 25-hour-a-day job. And it's not going to get any better unless each person does his or her small part. You may think that one badly-named file isn't going to hurt anyone and you might be right. But information, data, and files have ways of getting around and there is a pretty good chance that your false filename is going to be duplicated or referenced at some point (or more likely, several points) down the road. Fixing the problem right away prevents further misinformation from being spread. The Not Al page is my personal attempt to do that, but that attempt cannot succeed without the help of the visitors of this page. Make a difference. Spread truth.

The second part of this question is, "Who cares if a few songs are inappropriately attributed to Al anyway?" Rose Prevost wrote in with her 27 cents: "Well, Al cares. He once stated that it really disturbed him that some rather profane songs out there were credited to him. And we fans care, since he's worked hard for years to earn his reputation as someone that anyone can listen to and not be offended by what he says."