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Buddy Holly (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Buddy Holly" | |||||
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| Single by Weezer from the album Weezer (The Blue Album) |
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| Released | September 7, 1994 | ||||
| Format | CD | ||||
| Recorded | August-September, 1993 at Electric Lady Studios, New York City | ||||
| Genre | Alternative rock | ||||
| Length | 2:39 | ||||
| Label | DGC | ||||
| Producer | Ric Ocasek | ||||
| Weezer singles chronology | |||||
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| Weezer (The Blue Album) track listing | |||||
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"Buddy Holly" is a song by the rock group Weezer, written by Rivers Cuomo. It was released as a single in 1995 and appeared on the self-titled debut album in 1994. The single was released on what would have been Buddy Holly's 58th birthday, had he not been killed in a plane crash along with fellow rock pioneers Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper on February 3, 1959. The lyrics reference the 1950s singer and actress Mary Tyler Moore. It reached #2 and #34 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, respectively. It also reached #12 in the UK. Rolling Stone ranked "Buddy Holly" #497 in its 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[1]
Contents |
The music video for "Buddy Holly" was directed by Spike Jonze. It portrayed Weezer performing at the original Arnold's Drive-In diner from the popular '70s television show, Happy Days. The video combined contemporary footage of the band with clips from the show. Happy Days cast member Al Molinaro made a cameo appearance in the video. Al makes in a plug for his home town, Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the introduction. The video also features brief cameos by some members of the band That Dog as dancers at Arnold's.
The video was met with great popularity and heavy rotation on MTV.[2] The innovative video scored four awards at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, including prizes for Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Video.[3] The "Buddy Holly" music video was included on the Microsoft Windows 95 CD-ROM.
Rivers Cuomo is known for wearing thick-rimmed glasses, as did Buddy Holly. Weezer are often considered to be pioneers of fashion in the geek world, as one of its standards is the wearing of square glasses like Cuomo's. Ironically, Cuomo was not wearing his signature glasses in the video for the song. Weezer also inspired a small flourish of 'geek chic' fashion, making it popular to wear articles of clothing usually associated with geekdom, such as sweater vests. Oddly enough, as popular as this song was when it was released, the fashion trend that the song, and Weezer, inspired did not take effect until several years later.
Rivers Cuomo has stated in one of his MySpace blogs from 2006 that he remembers questioning whether or not to include this song on The Blue Album. He almost kept it off the final track list, but encouragement from producer Ric Ocasek soon changed his mind. In the book 'River's Edge', Ocasek is quoted as saying, "I remember at one point he was hesitant to do 'Buddy Holly' and I was like, 'Rives, we can talk about it. Do it anyway, and if you don't like it when it's done, we won't use it. But I think you should try. You did write it and it is a great song.'" Cuomo said that he felt the song was "too cheesy" and didn't know if the song represented the sound he was going for with the band's music. He has since concluded that he is glad that he didn't change his mind about the song because it is one of his favorite songs to play and sing live.
An early demo of "Buddy Holly" recorded by Cuomo in 1993 has a much different feel, as the song is played at a much slower tempo than the version that appears on the album. This version is scheduled to appear on Alone.
- Buddy Holly (2:40) (album version)
- My Name Is Jonas (live) (3:40)
- Surf Wax America (live) (4:09)
- Jamie (4:18) (non-album, previously released on DGC Rarities Vol. 1)
Live tracks recorded at Horizontal Boogie Bar, Rochester, NY on November 27, 1994.
- Buddy Holly
- Jamie
- Buddy Holly
- Holiday (album version)
- Buddy Holly
- Surf Wax America (live)
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Buddy Holly | Modern Rock Tracks (US) | No. 2 |
| 1995 | Buddy Holly | Mainstream Rock Tracks (US) | No. 36 |
| 1995 | Buddy Holly | UK Singles Chart | No. 12 |
| 1995 | Buddy Holly | Hot 100 (US) | No. 17 |
Information from AcclaimedMusic.com
- #497 in the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
- #364 Blender's Top 500 Songs of the 80s-00s
- #52 Kerrang!'s 100 Greatest Singles of All-Time
- #101 The Movement's The 100 (+300) Greatest Songs of All Time
- #50 The Movement's The 77 Best Singles of the 90s
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The two people on the cover are Rivers Cuomo and a childhood friend he wished to contact, to no avail, after using this photograph for the single.
- The song describes a platonic relationship that Rivers had in high school with a young-looking Asian girl (thus, "your tongue is twisted/your eyes are slit"). The duo were frequently made fun of, yet the song describes how he "doesn't care what they say about us anyway". It is inferred that the song might be a jab at the hard times that youngsters described as nerds go through.
- Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered this as a Lounge style on his 2002 album "Tuxicity".
- Scottish band Biffy Clyro covered this song for a Kerrang! magazine cover CD, High Voltage!: A Brief History of Rock, given away with Issue #1110.
- The video was distributed in AVI format on Windows 95 CDs as bonus content, to demonstrate the ability of the new Windows Media Player. The Windows 95 OSR/2 CD included a MPEG version of the video in addition to the AVI version.
- This single appears on the British Now 31.
- Mary Tyler Moore is perhaps referenced because Sonny Curtis (of Buddy Holly's band The Crickets) wrote and performed the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
- In October 2007, Much More Music placed "Buddy Holly" as number 3 of the Top 40 Most Memorable Music Videos on "Listed".
- Additionally, the song is set to appear in the music video game Rock Band as downloadable content, shortly after the game has been released.
- Rivers Cuomo – lead guitar, lead vocals
- Brian Bell – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Matt Sharp – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Patrick Wilson – percussion
- ^ The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2007-11-24.
- ^ Luerssen D., John. Rivers' Edge: The Weezer Story. ECW Press, 2004, ISBN 1-55022-619-3 p. 132
- ^ 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. Rock on the Net. Retrieved on 2007-09-11.
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|---|---|
| Brian Bell · Rivers Cuomo · Scott Shriner · Patrick Wilson Jason Cropper · Matt Sharp · Mikey Welsh |
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| Albums | Weezer (The Blue Album) · Pinkerton · Weezer (The Green Album) · Maladroit · Make Believe · Untitled |
| EPs | The Good Life · The Lion and the Witch · Winter Weezerland |
| DVD | Video Capture Device |
| Singles | "Undone - The Sweater Song" · "Buddy Holly" · "Say It Ain't So" · "El Scorcho" · "The Good Life" · "Pink Triangle" · "Hash Pipe" · "Island in the Sun" · "Photograph" · "Dope Nose" · "Keep Fishin'" · "Beverly Hills" · "We Are All on Drugs" · "Perfect Situation" · "This Is Such a Pity" |
| Related bands | The Rentals · The Special Goodness · The Relationship · Avant Garde · Homie · Karlophone · Space Twins |
| Related articles | Discography · Karl Koch · Songs from the Black Hole · The Kitchen Tapes · Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo · Foozer |