‘Weird Al’ Yankovic marks 40 years as king of pop parody with 15-album box set

If the prospect of a 15-album box set of nothing but novelty records sounds a little weird, that’s exactly the idea. Actually, it’s designed to be a lot weird — “Weird Al� Yankovic, that is.

The all-time king of pop music parody is preparing the monumental release later this year to mark his 40-year anniversary, sending up most of pop culture’s most influential forces, from Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and Nirvana to Madonna, Lady Gaga and “Star Wars.�

The Times is premiering a teaser video for the project, “Squeeze Box: The Complete Recordings of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic.� The teaser finds Yankovic’s longtime friend and drummer, Jon “Bermuda� Schwartz, guiding viewers through his trove of “Weird Al� memorabilia.

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Although the box set isn’t surfacing until the fall, Yankovic is launching a pre-order campaign through the direct-to-fan website PledgeMusic.com. Pre-orders begin Wednesday, and the full promo video for the set will be available on the site.

The set will be housed in a box replicating one of Yankovic’s signature accordions, with each of the CDs or LPs housed in the accordion’s bellows.

It spans his 1983 debut album, “ ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic,� through his most recent studio collection, “Mandatory Fun,� in 2014, the first comedy album to enter the Billboard 200 Albums chart at No. 1 and the first to top that chart in more than half a century.

In addition to the 14 remastered studio albums included in the box, six of which were never available on vinyl, the set also will include a bonus album, “Medium Rarities,� containing tracks spanning Yankovic’s career that never previously appeared on his albums.

The 40-year anniversary aspect of the box set dates to the first airing in 1976 of a home recording Yankovic sent to longtime radio show host Dr. Demento, who gave Yankovic his first public exposure with that recording of the original song “Belvedere Cruising,� written about his family’s Plymouth Belvedere.

The Lynwood native subsequently became a production assistant for Demento’s show, which also gave career-boosting exposure to some of Yankovic’s earliest parody songs, “My Bologna� (based on the Knack’s “My Sharona�) and “Another One Rides the Bus� (Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust�).

“If there hadn’t been a Dr. Demento,� Yankovic told the Syracuse Post in 2000, “I’d probably have a real job now.�

One irony of Yankovic’s long-running success crafting songs poking fun at major pop hits of the day is that his career has far outlasted many of those he parodied.

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