"Belvedere Cruising," 1975 ("Weird Al" Yankovic's high school band)

Alfred Yankovic had dreams of joining a rock band with the cool kids. Unsurprisingly, he was rebuffed: the cool kids didn’t need an accordion player. There were no hipsters to reclaim the instrument in those dark ages, he claims; “I was the original hipster.” Fearing himself resigned to a career of bar mitzvahs and weddings, Yankovic recorded a ballad to the family car on his cassette machine and sent it to his hero, Dr. Demento — LA’s legendary novelty radio personality. The song was terrible, he admits, but a high school boy playing the accordion and swooning over a Plymouth was just weird enough for the doctor to put it on air. The rest is history. Kurt’s interview with "Weird Al" Yankovic will air in next week’s show. → Send Studio 360 your high school band's best original song