Beverly Hills (song)

"Beverly Hills"
Single by Weezer
from the album Make Believe
Released March 29, 2005
Format CD
Recorded 2004
Genre Power pop[1]
Length 3:18
Label Geffen, Interscope
Writer(s) Rivers Cuomo
Producer(s) Rick Rubin
Weezer singles chronology
"Keep Fishin'"
(2002)		 "Beverly Hills"
(2005)		 "We Are All on Drugs"
(2005)

"Beverly Hills" is a song by the American rock band Weezer. It is the first single from the band's fifth album, Make Believe. "Beverly Hills" was released to radio on March 29, 2005.[2] The music video for this song, directed by Marcos Siega, was filmed at the Playboy Mansion (which is actually not located in Beverly Hills, but the neighboring community of Holmby Hills), with Hugh Hefner making a cameo appearance at the beginning. The song features Stephanie Eitel of Agent Sparks on the chorus on backup vocals, performing the "Gimme, gimme" hook.

Inspiration

Rivers Cuomo's story behind "Beverly Hills": "I was at the opening of the new Hollywood Bowl and I flipped through the program and I saw a picture of Wilson Phillips. And for some reason I just thought how nice it would be to marry, like, an “established” celebrity and live in Beverly Hills and be part of that world. And it was a totally sincere desire. And then I wrote that song, Beverly Hills. For some reason, by the time it came out—and the video came out—it got twisted around into something that seemed sarcastic. But originally it wasn’t meant to be sarcastic at all."[3]

Success

The song was the band's most commercially successful single until "Pork and Beans" was released, best remembered for its I-IV-V chord progression, use of hand claps, simple lyrics that spoke of alienation and a distinctive talk box solo that Cuomo plays an extended version of when the band plays the song live. The song topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for a week, spending months near the top of the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at #10) and being certified gold on June 6, 2005; it was also the band's first song to chart there since "Undone – The Sweater Song" at #57 in 1994 after 11 years since the rest of Weezer's other hits from the past had only managed to chart only on the Hot 100 Airplay or the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. As of December 2010, it is still the band's highest-charting Hot 100 single. As of January 2006, the digital single has been purchased over 962,000 times on iTunes. It also did very well on other Billboard charts, such as Adult Top 40 (#8 peak), Mainstream Top 40 (#2 peak), Hot Digital Songs (#1 peak) and Mainstream Rock Tracks (#26 peak).

The song also made the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #9, and remaining on the chart for five weeks. The song was nominated for Best Rock Song at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, the first ever nomination for the band. The video for the song was nominated at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Rock Video. The song won College Song Of The Year at the 54th Annual Broadcast Music Incorporated Pop Awards.[4] "Beverly Hills" stayed at #1 on the Modern Rock charts for 1 week. It was the first #1 for Weezer, but this record was later met with "Perfect Situation," Make Believe's third single, which held the pole position for 4 weeks. The song was the third highest selling digital download of 2005 in the US according to Nielsen SoundScan.[5]

Rivers Cuomo stated that "Beverly Hills" along with the solo, third verse, and last chorus of "Falling for You" (from Pinkerton), are his proudest musical achievements: "It's incredibly fun: a great beat, guitar riffs, catchy vocal style. Besides that, I think the lyrics are incredible in a very understated way. I might as well enjoy my life and watch the stars play. I love it! With this one song we were able to transcend our little niche and connect with all kinds of people, young and old, from all kinds of backgrounds."[6] "Weird Al" Yankovic included the song in his polka medley "Polkarama!" from his 2006 album Straight Outta Lynwood.

Versions

  1. . Album Version - 3:18
  2. . Video Version - 3:30
  3. . Single Version - 3:22
  4. . Radio Disney edit - 3:19

Cell phone leak

A notable moment among Weezer fans took place after the song's video shoot, where the band's fans were prominently featured after a request[7] was put up on Weezer's website weezer.com. The song and the upcoming album were still very tightly under wraps and nobody had heard any material from the album. Despite all recording devices being checked at the entrance point of the shoot, a fan managed to get his cell phone in and record a clip from the song that he posted on the internet. The cell phone clip was quickly downloaded over and over by eager fans, as it represented the first new material heard from the band in two years.

Chart performance

Chart (2005-2006) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 10
U.S. Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks 8
U.S. Top 40 Mainstream 2
U.S. Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks 26
U.S. Hot Modern Rock Tracks 1
U.S. Top 40 Adult Recurrents 1
UK Singles Chart 9

Year-end charts

Chart (2005) Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[8] 20
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 5

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ "CD Reviews > "The Red Album" – Weezer". The Press Democrat. 7 June 2008. p. D4.
  2. ↑ "FMQB Airplay Archive: Modern Rock". Friday Morning Quarterback Album Report, Incorporated. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Make Believe: Track By Track". Weezer.com. Archived from the original on 2013-05-03. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  4. ↑ http://www.wjbq.com/rftp/nmc/news/10323.html Wjbq.com
  5. ↑ Welte, Jim (January 5, 2006). "Weezer, Gwen top digital sales". mp3.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "Rivers Cuomo Fan Interview 1996". Weezer.com. Archived from the original on 2006-09-09. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  7. ↑ "Weezer make an appeal to fans".
  8. ↑ "Billboard Top 100 - 2005". Archived from the original on March 4, 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-31.

External links

Preceded by
"The Hand that Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails		 Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single
July 2, 2005 		Succeeded by
"Best of You" by Foo Fighters
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