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Headline News (song)

"Headline News"
Headlinenews.jpg
Single by "Weird Al" Yankovic
from the album Permanent Record: Al in the Box
B-side "Christmas at Ground Zero (Alternate Mix)"
Released September 27, 1994
Format CD, cassette
Recorded July 27, 1994
Length 3:46
Label Rock 'n Roll Records
Scotti Brothers
Writer(s) Brad Roberts, Al Yankovic
Producer(s) "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic singles chronology
"Achy Breaky Song"
(1993)
"Headline News"
(1994)
"Amish Paradise"
(1996)

"Headline News" is a parody song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of the Crash Test Dummies's 1993 hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm". It was released as the lead-off single for the compilation box set Permanent Record: Al in the Box on September 27, 1994. The song was written after Yankovic's label insisted he craft a new song to promote the album; Yankovic in turn combined the music of the Crash Test Dummies' song with three news stories that were popular in late 1993 and early 1994.

To help promote the song and album, Yankovic directed a music video that was a direct parody of the Crash Test Dummies' original. In it, the three news stories are presented as if they are one-act plays before an audience of people. The video took two days to film and ended up running over the allotted time that had been scheduled for filming. The resulting video was also extremely expensive to fund. Several notable individuals made cameos in the video, such as Doug Llewelyn, Dr. Demento and Judy Tenuta.

The song and video were met with mostly positive reviews from critics, although at least one critic noted that the source material would soon become dated. The Crash Test Dummies were very pleased with the final result and even performed the song with Yankovic in concert twice. "Headline News" charted at number four on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, making it Yankovic's first single to chart domestically since 1992's "Smells Like Nirvana".

While Yankovic was writing the original songs for a new album—which was later released in 1996 as Bad Hair Day—his label, Scotti Brothers Records, insisted that he release a new record in order to meet monetary projections for the fourth fiscal quarter of the year. Yankovic, however, explained that he would be unable to finish a new record in time, so his label decided to release a box set entitled Permanent Record: Al in the Box. The label then stipulated that Yankovic would need to at least record a new single to promote the box set.


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