It turns out that “Weird Al” Yankovic wanted to make a parody of Beck’s song “Loser”. Beck rejected Yankovic, so the parody version was never made. In a new episode of Audible’s music series Words + musictold Beck he regrets not letting Yankovic cover “Loser.”
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic wanted to make a parody version of Beck’s song ‘Loser’
Audible’s Words + music the series lets featured artists talk about their careers and creative journeys, while giving listeners access to new performances.
Becks Words + music the episode is titled “Dear Life,” and it premiered on Audible on July 1st. Prior to release, Billboard received an exclusive preview clip from the episode.
According to the excerpt shared by Billboard, Yankovic wanted to create a parody of Beck’s song “Loser”.
“‘Weird Al’ Yankovic tried to make a version of it. It was supposed to be called ‘Schmoozer,'” Beck told the newspaper. Words + music extract. “Which I regret that I denied him permission to do; I think that would have been a great video. I’m actually really sorry it didn’t happen. “
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Billboard speculates that “Based on the timing, ‘Weird Al’ probably asked to include ‘Schmoozer’ on his 1996 album Bad hair day… ”
Beck’s song ‘Loser’ became popular on overtime
Beck originally released “Loser” in 1993. After gaining more popularity, “Loser” was re-released on the singer’s 1994 album Soft gold.
The singer-songwriter said on his Words + music episode that because the record companies “rejected” the song, it was originally released independently. After “Loser” became more popular with listeners, Beck was contacted by record companies about the song.
“It was rejected by everyone,” he said. “So after a couple of years with this, they ended up releasing that song. 500 copies. And somehow, alone, it just got on the radio and it went straight to No. 1 and was in the top five in a year, ”Beck said in Billboard’s excerpt from“ Dear Life. ”
He continued, “And then all these labels came back like, ‘Hey, we said that song would never go anywhere, and it was this and that, but hey, can we talk?'”
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Why Beck did not want ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic to make a parody of ‘Loser’
While “Loser” helped launch Beck to more mainstream popularity, he was hesitant about Yankovic parodying the song. This is because Beck wanted to avoid setbacks in order to be known only for “Loser”.
“It was not taken seriously at all. And when it came out and it was popular, it was still not taken that seriously at all, ”Beck said in his Words + music episode. “I mean, you can go back to today’s press. I just remember countless articles and headlines about ‘one-hit wonder’, ‘joke band’, ‘Beck novelty act’.”
Fans can listen to Beck’s Words + music section here.
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