B-side "Velvet Elvis" Format 7", 3" Length 2:45 | Released May 27, 1988 Recorded February 19, 1988 | |
Genre Comedy rock, Latin, Chicano rock |
"Lasagna" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "La Bamba", a traditional song popularized by Ritchie Valens and Los Lobos.
Contents
Track listing
- "Lasagna" – 2:45
- "Velvet Elvis" – 4:27
Writing and release
When Yankovic began writing the song, he claimed:
My original thought for this was to record the entire song in Italian.
I was actually going through Italian phrase books and dictionaries until I realized that the humor would be lost on 99% of the audience, so I decided to do the whole thing in English but with kind of a bad Italian accent.
Under U.S. law, Yankovic can parody any song as long as he pays royalties to use the original music. However, as a personal rule, he asks for permission to maintain good relations with the industry. This song is an exception to that rule. Although it is a parody of the Los Lobos cover version, "Lasagna" marked Yankovic's first parody that did not require permission from an artist or a payment of royalties, since "La Bamba" is a traditional folk song that is not attributed to any specific writer.
The single was released exclusively in Japan as a mini 3" CD single.
Music video
There is no full-length music video for this single, though a shortened music video segment was shown in 1997 as a part of The Weird Al Show.
Italian dishes mentioned in "Lasagna"
Yankovic names many Italian dishes in "Lasagna", including:
In pop culture
This song plays on a radio in a cave scene in the live-action/animated Yogi Bear movie.