5 Artists Who Didn't Want Their Songs Mocked By "Weird Al" Yankovic

Using the art form of song parody, Weird Al has sold more than 12 million albums and won four Grammy Awards. Being parodied by Weird Al has become a sort of benchmark in American music, and it's one sign that you've "made it" in the music biz when Weird Al pokes fun at one of your songs. But it seems some people just can't take being made fun of or seeing their art taken as anything but deathly serious. 

Weird Al tried to parody a number of Prince songs–including both "Kiss" and "1999"–but couldn't get permission from the artist. Of course, parody falls under Fair Use, so Al's not required to get permission, but it's a part of his personal ethics. According to Al in an Access Hollywood interview, "The only person who’s consistently said no has been Prince. I haven’t approached him in 20 years."

Weird Al once wanted to parody McCartney's "Live and Let Die," coming up with the idea "Chicken Pot Pie." McCartney wasn't opposed to the idea of being parodied, but he was against the idea of promoting the consumption of animal products, since the former Beatle is and has been a vegetarian for 40 years. Weird Al never came up with another parody idea for one of McCartney's songs, though he's rumored to occasionally perform "Chicken Pot Pie" live. 

Coolio originally didn't want Al making light of "Gangsta’s Paradise," as the artist deemed it too serious for parody. After a number of communication errors, Weird Al thought he had Coolio's permission to parody the song, although he didn't. Weird Al went through with the recording, and his version became a smash hit. Coolio eventually decided the parody was just fine with him. 

Weird Al's "Couch Potato" is a song that parodies Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from the film "8 Mile." Eminem didn't mind the song just sitting on an album, but he denied Al's desire to release the parody as a single with an accompanying music video. Eminem feared a parody video would "make people take him less seriously as an important hip-hop artist," Weird Al said. 

If you're talking about one-hit wonders, Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" might come to mind. Weird Al wanted to parody the song under the title "You Had a Bad Date," but Powter apparently didn't want to be mocked. Shortly after this, Yankovic said in an interview with the Toronto Sun, "we got a call saying [Powter] changed his mind and he wanted to do it after all. And I had to inform him that the train had left the station." And that makes me very happy.