Synopsis

Weird Al Yankovic performs the title song for the spy spoof in a flamboyant James Bond-style opening. Against shifting colored backgrounds, animated silhouettes, dancing figures, firearms, and wavy lettering, he delivers an intentionally overblown orchestral anthem packed with self-aware spy-movie references. Yankovic repeatedly interacts with the graphics, including swatting away the "Spy Hard" title and acknowledging his own credit. The performance climaxes with him sustaining the final note so dramatically that his head explodes.

Factoids & Trivia

• The sequence is modeled most closely on the opening titles of the 1965 James Bond film "Thunderball," while also borrowing conventions from other Bond title songs.

• The song is an original composition rather than a parody with rewritten lyrics, though its arrangement and presentation deliberately pastiche classic Bond themes.

• Yankovic's exploding head plays on the long-standing story that Tom Jones supposedly passed out while sustaining the final note of "Thunderball." Yankovic had expected to loop his own note in the studio, but found that he could hold it for the required duration without a loop.

• The MTV-era promotional edit was altered after Disney objected to some of the Bond-like imagery. Yankovic later said that silhouetted women swimming in the background had to be removed, even though similar imagery remained in the film's opening sequence.

• Several home-video versions exist. One version removed the printed film credits for legal reasons, leaving Yankovic apparently reacting to empty space. A later collection restored the "Spy Hard" title and his opening-title credit.

• The song first appeared as the B-side of the "Gump" single rather than on a regular Weird Al studio album. It was later collected on the "Medium Rarities" disc included with the "Squeeze Box" box set.

• The film's end credits use a revised version of the song, changing the lyrics from present tense to past tense. That alternate version has not received a commercial release.