Buddy Holly: Difference between revisions

| Type    = single

| Released = [[May 10]], [[1994]]<br>[[September 7]], [[1994]] - as a single

| Recorded = August-September 1993 at Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY

| Length  = 2:39

| Label    = Geffen

| Writer  = Rivers Cuomo

| Reviews  = *[[Buddy Holly Allmusic track review|Allmusic]] {{Rating-big|5|5}} (5/5)

| Producer = Ric Ocasek  

| This track      = "Buddy Holly"<br>(4)

"'''Buddy Holly'''" is the second single and fourth track from ''[[Weezer (The Blue Album)|The Blue Album]]''.

"Buddy Holly" is one the most-well known Weezer songs. Originally written in June of 1993, the demo for the song, released on ''[[Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo]]'', features a slower tempo. In the liner notes for ''Alone'', Cuomo explained how he was inspired to write the song after a friend from his choir lent him a Korg keyboard:

{{Alone liner notes|I was in the Santa Monica College Choir and I met a kid named Steve Graff who lent me his Korg Keyboard. Inspired by its goofy synth sounds, I decided to write some new-wave influenced songs.

The chorus melody, though, I came up with as I was walking through the lawns of the campus. The melody was in time to my steps: "ooo-we-ooo I look just like Buddy Holly." The lyrics I struggled with, trying to find the right reference point. An early version read, "ooo-we-ooo you look just like Ginger Rogers. Oh-oh I move just like Fred Astaire."

The life-situation that inspired the lyric was an incident in which the Weezer guys were making fun of my friend Kyung He (also in the Santa Monica College Choir). They were the "homies dissin' my girl".

I rarely wrote lyrics about tension between me and the guys in the band because I thought it would be awkward for us all to perform those songs together. In this case, though, it didn't seem like a big deal.

Obviously, this track is kind of slow compared to how it ended up on the Weezer record. [Even on the Weezer record we recorded it pretty slow. We sped it up during mastering.] I've always like big, fat, heavy guitar sounds and when I write a song with a sound like that I end up digging in and playing real slow. It isn't 'til we hear a song back on tape that we realize, "hey, that's a little dirgy."}}

"Buddy Holly" is the most oft-performed song in the Weezer catalog. Beginning in late [[2000]], an extended guitar intro was added, and continued to be performed through [[2005]]. Rivers Cuomo has said that "Buddy Holly" is his favorite song to perform live.

"Buddy Holly" was the second single released from ''The Blue Album''.  Its initial cover art featured a photo of a very young Rivers Cuomo with a female friend.  Apparently, the photo was used before gaining permission from this girl, and a search for her turned up fruitless. When [[Geffen]] realized they may be in an actionable position, they quickly changed the cover, and a photo of Cuomo and his brother [[Leaves]] was used instead. The incorrect cover only appears on promo copies of the single, except in Austrailia, who rushed a "Buddy Holly" single out so fast that it not only included the banned photo, but included none of the exclusive B-sides, instead simply including the LP version of "[[Holiday]]". [[Karl Koch]] would later say, "These Austrailians seem to rush into everything."

"Buddy Holly" is one of the most universally-loved and famous Weezer songs.  The guitar fill at the end of the solo is one of the most notable moments in any Weezer song.  Its music video was very significant in Weezer's career, winning awards and bringing the band a high level of visibility. The song was ranked as part of "The Very Best" by the Weezer songblog, [[Teenage Victory Songs]]. Allmusic.com gave "Buddy Holly" a [[Buddy Holly Allmusic track review|5 star rating]] and named it an "AMG Track Pick."

The song was covered by parody group [[Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine]] for their [[2003]] album ''[[Tuxicity]]''.

''<blockquote>The one that blew everything out of the water for Weezer, and, along with his "Sabotage" video, put [[Spike Jonze|Spike]] firmly on the map. No computer trickery, just a real Al, real sets and real props, combined with vintage footage to freak out a lot of fans not yet familiar with what CGI could and couldn't do.</blockquote>''

:-[[Karl Koch]] on the "Buddy Holly" music video, from the liner notes for ''[[Video Capture Device]]''

What's a matter babe, are you feelin' blue?