Note to Managers: The Internet Will Tattle on You

In between bouts of medicine-taking and sleeping, I noticed something interesting on Twitter. According to Weird Al Yankovic (@alyankovic), a parody song that he had already recorded was rejected by Lady Gaga.

Now, I've been a Weird Al fan since I was little and my brother and I would blast his cassettes to drive my mother crazy. I'm also a musician and work in music libraries, so I make a point to try to learn how different musicians run their businesses. So, I know that in order for one of his parodies to get to the recording stage and THEN be rejected, something went wrong. Al has a policy that before he writes any parodies, he contacts the original artist and gets permission on the concept. This policy is unnecessary by US law, but most musicians appreciate the gesture. Also, most musicians approve the parody in question.

According to his blog, Weird Al has been jumping through all sorts of hoops to get his latest parody, "Perform This Way," approved. Its an obvious playful jab at Lady Gaga's "Born This Way." Al even decided BEFORE he even sent a concept along that he would have all the proceeds of this song go to the Human Rights Campaign. This was based on his respect for the message behind "Born This Way" and Gaga's known stance on promoting LGBTQ rights.

He was still told "no." So, since he had already recorded the song, he released it for free via YouTube today and then would set up a download later. On the YouTube video, he clearly states that he didn't get permission to release the song commercially, but enjoy it for free and consider donating to the HRC.



So, the internets, now aware of the situation, flooded Lady Gaga's Twitter and other pages with their thoughts on the matter. They had a hard time believing that this woman had lost her sense of humor. To be fair, Al didn't post the information to cause this reaction, he's just trying to avoid another "Coolio" incident that would haunt him in interviews for years to come. Humorously enough, Lady Gaga soon contacted Weird Al and said not only did she not know he was writing a song, but she approved of it. Apparently, her manager never told her about the song, he just made the decision himself. Oops.

Al's latest blog post covers the details. So, the song will be on Al's upcoming album and he will be able to produce a music video based on it. I, personally, I'm waiting in delighted dread for the video.