Weird Al Yankovic smiles on the 2010 Grammy Awards red carpet -- he was nominated for a Grammy for 'Internet Leaks'. (Jason Merritt / Getty Images)

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Weird Al Yankovic has seen his career go from Dr. Demento curio to rock-parody man of the moment to, well, a respected music/comedy veteran.

But one question still remains: Why isn’t the accordion appreciated more?

“You don’t have to tell me!” said Yankovic, who will be firing up the mighty instrument on Saturday at the Center for the Arts at Mizner Park in Boca Raton. “I’m still out here trying to bring it to the masses, trying to make it the sexy instrument it was meant to be.”

The accordion is ever-present for Yankovic, even though a lot of the music world has changed dramatically around him. His first single, “My Bologna”, a 1979 parody of The Knack mega-hit “My Sharona”, was released as a vinyl 45.

Yankovic’s latest work, Internet Leaks, was released as a digital-only EP. And though the collection wasn’t a smash, Yankovic said the EP did what it was supposed to do.

“It was sort of an experiment,” he said in a telephone interview. “It was a reasonable success, maybe not a huge hit. But it let me roll out one song at a time, and treat each like a minor event, at least among my fans.”

It was also a collection of mostly Yankovic originals — only “Whatever You Like,” which turns T.I.’s song “Whatever You Like” into a tale of courtship through financial hardship, was a true parody. Still, it was well-received, earning Yankovic a Grammy nomination.

Internet Leaks also afforded Yankovic the chance to work with Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek on the song “Craigslist”. Yankovic talked with Manzarek about performing with him before he wrote the song, a Doors-styled salute to the classified-ad website.

“I sort of called him out of the blue,” Yankovic said. “I told him I was writing an homage to the Doors, and would love to know if you’d play on it. He said yes, although he had reservations at first. But he did think it was a cool idea. It was one of the high points of my life, to see Ray Manzarek recording my song.”

“Craigslist” may end up on Saturday’s set list, which has become a real challenge for Yankovic, given that he’s been recording for as long as artists like Tom Petty or (almost) Aerosmith. And some songs, like “Amish Paradise”, “Eat It”, “Fat”, “Smells Like Nirvana” and the Star Wars two-fer of “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda”, are staples of any set.

“The set list can be a bit of a juggling act,” Yankovic said. “Unless it’s a 12-hour show, there’s always going to be someone walking away saying, ‘Aw, how come he didn’t play this song?’ “