#33: Nathan Rabin & Al Yankovic, Weird Al: The Book

[kareila]

This is a coffee table book more notable for its images than its narrative, although I did find some anecdotes I hadn't heard before. It provides a good overview of Weird Al's career through 2012, name-checking all his biggest hit songs, and pointing out which records were considered successful and which were not. His failures are all blamed on external forces (record labels, studio executives), although to be fair, his improbable success is also at least partially credited to the help he got at several key points - most notably from Dr. Demento, but there were others as well. It's all a bit fluffy, but entertaining, and definitely puts me in the mood for revisiting some of Al's music.