"Say It Ain't So" | ||||||||
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Single by Weezer | ||||||||
from the album Weezer | ||||||||
Released | July 13, 1995 | |||||||
Format | CD | |||||||
Recorded |
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Genre | ||||||||
Length | 4:18 | |||||||
Label | DGC | |||||||
Writer(s) | Rivers Cuomo | |||||||
Producer(s) | Ric Ocasek | |||||||
Weezer singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Say It Ain't So" is a song by the American rock band Weezer. It was released as the third and final single from the band's self-titled 1994 debut album.
Written by frontman Rivers Cuomo, the song came to be after he had all the music finished and one line, "Say it ain't so". Cuomo made a connection to an incident in high school where he came home and saw a bottle of beer in the fridge. He believed his mother and father's marriage ended because his father was an alcoholic and this made him fear the marriage between his mother and step-father would end this way as well.
In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked "Say It Ain't So" #72 on "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time."Pitchfork Media included the song at number 10 on its Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.
"Say It Ain't So" is a playable track in the video games Rock Band and Rocksmith 2014 in addition to appearing on an episode of Hindsight.
"Say It Ain't So" is written in the key of E-major. It follows a chord progression of C#m-G#-A-E. However, it is tuned down 1/2 step so that the song sounds as if in Eb. The bridge section follows the progression B-B/A#-Em-G (again, tuned half a step down).
Two mixes of the song exist. The original album pressings had a mix with slightly different sounding drums, bass and no guitar feedback. However, when the band released the single, the mix that kept the guitar feedback in the song was used. The band liked this mix so much that the members asked for it to replace the version on the album, after the album had sold 3 million copies. The album now features the version with the feedback. The deluxe version features both mixes.
Live acoustic tracks were recorded on April 1, 1995 at Cat's Paw Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.
The music video for "Say It Ain't So", directed by Sophie Muller, met with less success than the previous two Weezer videos directed by Spike Jonze, but the song still successfully climbed to the top 10 of the Modern Rock Tracks chart.