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'Weird Al' Yankovic bags top spot on Billboard chart

"Weird Al" Yankovic, the parody singer and cult figure, on Wednesday earned his first No. 1 album on the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on the strength of several viral videos released online.

 

 

Parodying pop hits such as Pharrell Williams​' Happy and Lorde’s Royals, Yankovic’s Mandatory Fun album sold 104,000 copies in its debut week, according to figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan.

 

 

Billboard said it is the first comedy album to top the chart since 1963, adding that Mandatory Fun had the most weekly sales for a comedy album since 1994.

Yankovic had launched a promotional campaign releasing eight new music videos in as many days.

 

 

The 54-year-old is famed for his 1984 spoof of Michael Jackson's Beat It. He has also scored hits over the past 30 years with parodies such as Like A Surgeon (Madonna’s Like A Virgin) and Amish Paradise (Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise).

 

 

The next three spots on the Billboard 200 were all claimed by debutantes: singer-songwriter Jason Mraz was No. 2 with Yes! selling 81,000 albums, rock band Rise Against’s The Black Market was No. 3 with 53,000 copies and Kidz Bop Kids’ Kidz Bop 26 was No. 4 with 46,000.

The soundtrack from Disney’s animated hit Frozen held on to fifth place, extending its run in the chart’s top five to 31 weeks.

If you haven't heard Yankovic's take on Pharrell​'s Happy, check it out below.

 

You can watch the other videos here.

Source: Reuters, AFP

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