"Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a cover of " Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits with the lyrics replaced by those of ''

The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family f ...

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

. The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

, which appeared as part of Yankovic's film '' UHF'', is a parody of the "Money for Nothing" music video. The song features Dire Straits members

Mark Knopfler Mark Freuder Knopfler (born 12 August 1949) is a British singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Born in Scotland and raised in England, he was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits. He pursued a s ...

on guitar and

Guy Fletcher Guy Edward Fletcher (born 24 May 1960) is an English multi-instrumentalist, best known for his position as one of the two keyboard players in the rock band Dire Straits from 1984 until the group's dissolution, and his subsequent work with Dire ...

on synthesizer, Knopfler's one condition for allowing the parody. Jim West, Yankovic's own guitarist, then practiced the song for weeks. As a result of that and because Knopfler had become more relaxed after having played it for several years, West's version sounded more like the original version. The song is credited to Mark Knopfler and Sting (writers of the original "Money for Nothing") and

Paul Henning Paul William Henning (September 16, 1911 – March 25, 2005) was an American TV producer and screenwriter. Most famous for creating the television sitcom ''The Beverly Hillbillies'', he was also crucial in developing the "rural" comedies ''Pett ...

(writer of "The Ballad of Jed Clampett").

Track listing

# "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" – 3:10 # "Generic Blues" – 4:35

Title negotiation

Originally the title of the song was going to be simply "Beverly Hillbillies"; however, the title of the song was changed to "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" (with an asterisk), and it is legally copyrighted and registered as such. Yankovic commented on the legal complications with the titling of the song in the DVD audio commentary for the film ''UHF'', explaining: "We had to name that song 'Money for Nothing "slash" Beverly Hillbillies "asterisk"' because the lawyers told us that had to be the name. Those wacky lawyers! Whatcha gonna do?" Yankovic also gave the following comment on his official website in regard to the title: "That incredibly stupid name is what the lawyers insisted that the parody be listed as. I'm not sure why, and I've obviously never been very happy about it." Yankovic later stated he would rather have wanted the title to be either 'Money for Nothing for the Beverly Hillbillies' or 'Beverly Hillbillies for Nothing'.

Music video

The music video for the "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" was done in the same style as the original. However, several concepts were parodied. * In the opening of the original video, a skinny, computer-generated man (who "lip syncs" Sting's vocals) is watching television. In the parody, this character is modeled after George Newman (Yankovic's character in ''UHF''). * The live action scenes are similar to the original, including partially rotoscoped-animation in bright neon colors, light emitting from the lead singer's head, and the "invisible man" playing the guitar. * In the original, a portly blue-collar worker is shown "lip syncing" to Knopfler's vocals. In the parody, this character is modeled on the Jed Clampett character from ''Beverly Hillbillies''. * A short live-action clip displays the song as "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" by George Newman (Yankovic's character in ''UHF''). * David Silverman, later of '' Simpsons'' fame, designed the characters seen in the animated music video. * In the original videos, the guitars simply have neon-styled effects added to them. In the parody, one of the guitars is made to twist as if it were solely neon lights. * The original video features frequent camera cuts centered at Mark Knopfler in the final verse. This sequence is parodied in Yankovic's video during the first verse with him noticing the camera is cutting around him, constantly losing track of it before finally grabbing it and holding it in place himself.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Money For Nothing Beverly Hillbillies Songs written by Mark Knopfler Songs written by Sting (musician) 1989 singles "Weird Al" Yankovic songs Mashup songs Songs about television 1989 songs American hard rock songs The Beverly Hillbillies Dire Straits Animated music videos Songs written by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Track listing

Title negotiation

Music video

See also

References