“Weird Al” Yankovic is a national treasure, and so, of course, is Toto‘s “Africa.” In addition to his song parodies, Yankovic is also notable for his accordion skills–his early music even incorporated accordion into his parodies, though later recordings are more straightforward recreations (with the notable exception of his polka medleys). Yankovic was the closest thing to a meme generator that there could have been pre-internet, and Weezer, with their Twitter-spawned cover of “Africa,” are currently riding some meme-driven success of their own.
While the synth sound on their cover doesn’t exactly match the Yamaha GS-1 synth of the original tune, Weezer ultimately one-upped Toto by bringing Yankovic (who had nearly covered “Buddy Holly” for 1996’s “Alternative Polka” and would cover “Beverly Hills” in 2006’s “Polkarama”) on stage with his accordion for the bridge and final chorus. Unsurprisingly, video footage was uploaded almost immediately, courtesy of Brian James from live music YouTube channel LALiveVids.
Yankovic appears at the 3:30 mark in the video, but the official “Weird Al” twitter account posted a video of its own from the moment when he comes on to the stage. View both below.
So, this just happened. (Thanks, @Weezer.) pic.twitter.com/DIt5Sf25Vz
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) August 9, 2018
