Buddy Holly (song)
| "Buddy Holly" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Weezer | ||||||||||
| from the album Weezer | ||||||||||
| Released | September 7, 1994 | |||||||||
| Format | CD, cassette, vinyl | |||||||||
| Recorded | August–September 1993, Electric Lady Studios, New York City, New York | |||||||||
| Genre | Alternative rock, power pop | |||||||||
| Length | 2:39 | |||||||||
| Label | DGC | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Rivers Cuomo | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Ric Ocasek | |||||||||
| Weezer singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Buddy Holly" is a song by the American rock band Weezer, written by Rivers Cuomo. It was released as the second single from the band's debut album Weezer (The Blue Album) in 1994. The single was released on what would have been Buddy Holly's 58th birthday. The lyrics reference the song's 1950s namesake 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 United Kingdom. Rolling Stone ranked "Buddy Holly" #499 in its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2010). The single was certified gold by the RIAA in 2006.VH1 ranked it as one of the 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s at #59 in December 2007.
Rivers Cuomo stated that he remembers questioning whether or not to include this song on Weezer. 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, 'Rivers, 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. Matt Sharp recalls:
...Ric said we'd be stupid to leave it off the album. We'd come into the studio in the morning and find little pieces of paper with doodles on them: WE WANT BUDDY HOLLY.
An early demo of "Buddy Holly" recorded by Cuomo in 1993 has a different feel, as the song is played at a much slower tempo, than the version that appears on the album. This version appeared on Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. The liner notes for Alone explain that the chorus, in its most primitive form, originally was sung as: "Oo-wee-oo you look just like Ginger Rogers/Oh, oh, I move just like Fred Astaire". The rest of the chorus stayed the same as the Blue Album version.
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