Fat (song)

"Fat"
Single by "Weird Al" Yankovic
from the album Even Worse
B-side "You Make Me"
Released April 12, 1988
Format 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, 3" CD
Recorded February 18, 1988
Genre Comedy, funk
Length 3:36
Label Scotti Brothers
Songwriter(s) Michael Jackson
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Producer(s) Rick Derringer
"Weird Al" Yankovic singles chronology
"Christmas at Ground Zero"
(1986)
"Fat"
(1988)
"Lasagna"
(1988)
Even Worse track listing
  1. "Fat"
  2. "Stuck in a Closet with Vanna White"
  3. "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long"
  4. "You Make Me"
  5. "I Think I'm a Clone Now"
  6. "Lasagna"
  7. "Melanie"
  8. "Alimony"
  9. "Velvet Elvis"
  10. "Twister"
  11. "Good Old Days"

"Fat" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "Bad" by Michael Jackson. It is Yankovic's second parody of a Jackson song, the first being "Eat It", a parody of Jackson's "Beat It". "Fat" is the first song on Yankovic's Even Worse album.

The video won a Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video in 1988.[1]

Background

Yankovic came up with the idea for "Fat" while watching the "Bad" music video, when he had an epiphany that a parody of that song titled Fat would be a good sequel to "Eat It" (a previous Weird Al Michael Jackson parody). As he watched the "Bad" video, he imagined an obese version of himself trying to get through the turnstiles on a subway, and resolved that he would do it.[2]

Concert version

When performing in concert, Yankovic wears a fat suit and a mask that makes his face appear fat. Due to undergoing laser vision correction surgery, he no longer needs to wear glasses, though he wears glasses with non-prescription plastic lenses in order to help hold on the mask.[3]

Track listing

  1. "Fat" 3:36
  2. "You Make Me" 3:04

Music video

Directed by Jay Levey,[4] the video for "Fat" parodies various elements of the "Bad" video by Jackson; Yankovic was able to get permission from Michael Jackson to use the same subway set from "Bad" for the video. Jackson had built an exact replica of the original set for the movie Moonwalker to be used in the segment called "Badder", and before striking it, he offered to allow Yankovic to use it.[5]

Chart performance

See also

References

  1. "GRAMMY Winners Search". grammy.com. Archived from the original on 2008-12-24. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  2. "The History Behind 12 Great Weird Al Videos". 15 July 2014.
  3. "Ask Al, January 2000". weirdal.com. Archived from the original on 2010-06-24. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  4. "mvdbase.com - 'Weird Al' Yankovic - "Fat"". www.mvdbase.com.
  5. Yankovic, "Weird Al" (2011-06-09). "Michael Jackson Remembered: "Weird Al" Yankovic on Imitation as Flattery". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  6. "The Official New Zealand Music Chart". THE OFFICIAL NZ MUSIC CHART.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-02-04. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
  8. http://nztop40.co.nz/chart/?chart=3877
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