Beverly Hills

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"Beverly Hills"
Beverly Hills cover
Single by Weezer
Album Make Believe
Released March 29, 2005
Format CD, 7" Picture disc
Recorded Summer 2004
Length 3:16
Label Geffen
Writer(s) Rivers Cuomo
COR# 669
Producer(s) Weezer, Rick Rubin, Chad Bamford
Status Officially released
Live debut April 26, 2005
Stream Play on spotify.png Spotify
Play on Apple Music.png Apple Music
Professional reviews
Weezer singles chronology
"Keep Fishin'"
(2002)
"Beverly Hills"
(2005)
"We Are All on Drugs"
(2005)
Make Believe track listing
"Beverly Hills"
(1)
"Perfect Situation"
(2)

"Beverly Hills" is the first track and lead single from Make Believe.

Appearances

Overview


Mbcommentaryphoto.png
Rivers: 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.

Pat: I think that’s - that happens a lot with Weezer songs. People think we’re being funny, and then somehow it changes into something [else]. And I’d also like to say that Rick said, ‘why don’t you have a boom-boom-chop song?’ And that’s how it turned into that.

Scott: For me, two things I want to say about it. One is that I kept trying to think that it was supposed to be like a swing beat, with kind of a lot of upbeats, and a lot of jingly kind of thing, but as much as I kept trying to make that happen, it just never worked and it wound up being totally, totally straighter than straight, which I think wound up being the best thing for the song, all said and done. And then the next thing was, is that, when I heard all of the different mixes—cuz we had like four different people mix it—it just, it sounded good and I kind of dug one version of it, but when I heard the mix that Rich Costey did, somehow he put the kind of magic on that song that I was kind of expecting to get out of it.

Brian: When I first heard the song, it was a Rivers demo of it, and I think I called him and said, ‘Congratulations, you wrote a hit song.’ It had a hit immediately, regardless of—even more from its original version than from something else. To me, it was like - whatever “hit song” means - that’s what it evoked [for] me. I thought it would be a great - there was a reality haircutting show called “blow out” or “blow up” or something like that, about this salon in Beverly Hills, and I was trying to sell Rivers on letting that be that show’s theme song. But luckily we never did that.
- Band commentary, Weezer Recording History[1]


According to the Weezer Recording History, Rivers Cuomo wrote "Beverly Hills" around spring of 2004. It was considered an "A-list" contender by Cuomo for inclusion on Make Believe during the album's pre-production. The original demo for the song, released in November of 2020 as part of the digital compilation Alone IX: The Make Believe Years, featured a completely different chorus melody from the final version. The song was consistently included on the album's working tracklist, though it is known to have been considered for inclusion later on the album, as Make Believe's Amazon.com page listed as the fourth track in the months prior to release. Stephanie Eitel of the band Agent Sparks provided the "Gimmme, gimme" backing vocals.

"Beverly Hills" is, to date, Weezer's most commercially successful single. 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). The song was certified gold on June 6, 2005. 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), Hot Digital Songs (#1 peak) and Mainstream Rock Tracks (#26). The song also made the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #9 and remaining on the chart for five more weeks. The song was the top-selling digital download of 2005 according to Nielsen SoundScan [1].

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 BMI Pop Awards.

Rivers Cuomo stated in a 2006 fan interview that "Beverly Hills" along with the solo, third verse, and last chorus of "Falling for You," are his proudest musical achievements: "Its 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."

"Beverly Hills" is commonly abbreviated by fans as BvH (to avoid confusion with BH). The song features a talk box solo, making it the only appearance of a talk box, to date, in the Weezer discography. Initially upon the single's release, Rivers Cuomo utilized the talk box during live performances before opting to simply perform the section as a standard guitar solo. From 2009 onwards, Brian Bell has typically performed the talk box solo when during live performances of the song.

An unfinished mix of the song entered fan-circulation after it was mistakenly embedded in a Flash player on Weezer's official website.

Known recordings

Performer(s) Title Filename Date of recording Recording location Length Appeared on Notes
Rivers Cuomo Beverly Hills July 3, 2004[2] S.I.R. Rehearsal Studios, Los Angeles, CA
Rivers Cuomo Beverly Hills 10 Beverly Hills.mp3 July 20, 2004 S.I.R. Rehearsal Studios, Los Angeles, CA 3:26 Alone IX: The Make Believe Years
Weezer Beverly Hills July 22September 25, 2004 Grandmaster Recorders, Los Angeles, CA Rough mix
Weezer Beverly Hills July 22October 5, 2004 Grandmaster Recorders, Los Angeles, CA Rough mix
Weezer Beverly Hills July 22, 2004—Spring 2005 Grandmaster Recorders, Los Angeles, CA 3:21 Leaked online Rough mix, likely one of the two above recordings
Weezer Beverly Hills July 22, 2004—Spring 2005 Grandmaster Recorders, Los Angeles, CA 3:15 Leaked online Unmastered
Weezer Beverly Hills July 22, 2004—Spring 2005 Grandmaster Recorders, Los Angeles, CA 3:16
Weezer Beverly Hills July 22, 2004—Spring 2005 Grandmaster Recorders, Los Angeles, CA 3:17 Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 9 Clean edit
Weezer Beverly Hills ? ? 4:03 "I'm Your Daddy" digital-45 single (iTunes Canada only) Live performance
about this table

Video/Audio

The music video was directed by Marcos Siega and filmed at the Playboy Mansion (not actually located in Beverly Hills, but nearby Holmby Hills) with several Weezer fans, who were all informed of the event on Weezer's official website prior to the shooting.

Cell-phone clip

During the filming of the music video, 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 set as his Voicemail greeting. On the official weezer.com forums he posted that he had the clip, but did not know how to get it on the internet. Many fans did not believe him, so "enderw" called the supposed recorder's phone and got to his voicemail, proving the existence of the clip. "Enderw" then recorded the voicemail greeting with his computer microphone and posted it 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.

Audio

Inclusions and variations

Icon - Cleanup.png This section requires cleanup.
  • An alternate music video featuring the Sims 2: Nightlife expansion of The Sims 2 was featured on the MTV2 show Video Mods.[3]
  • A remix of the song called "Beverly Hills (Urbanix Mix)" appears on the "We Are All on Drugs" single.
  • Another remix dubbed the 'Ultimix' was posted at albumsix.com in December 2008 by user BringHomeTheTurkey, after discovering it at a PTP network. It appears to be an unreleased DJ remix, but is in fact little more than an extended re-edit, with some additional programmed percussion throughout.
  • The song is also featured on Now That's What I Call Music! 20 and Kidz Bop 9.
  • The song also has been used on Malcolm in the Middle.
  • The song's chorus is featured in the track "Polkarama!" from "Weird Al" Yankovic's album Straight Outta Lynwood. This, after Rivers withheld the rights to Buddy Holly when Yankovic wanted to include it in a polka circa 1995.
  • The song was also used in an episode of Cold Case called "Knuckle Up"
  • The band Bob Ricci made a parody of this song, based on the show Beverly Hills, 90210
  • The song is featured in the second Bring It On sequel, All Or Nothing.

Personnel

Lyrics

Where I come from isn't all that great
My automobile is a piece of crap
My fashion sense is a little whack
And my friends are just as screwy as me
I didn't go to boarding schools
Preppy girls never looked at me
Why should they?
I ain't nobody
Got nothing in my pocket

Beverly Hills
That's where I want to be (Gimme gimme, gimme gimme)
Livin' in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills
Rolling like a celebrity (Gimme gimme, gimme gimme)
Livin' in Beverly Hills

Look at all those movie stars
They're all so beautiful and clean
When the housemaids scrub the floors
They get the spaces in between
I wanna live a life like that
I wanna be just like a king
Take my picture by the pool
'cause I'm the next big thing

Beverly Hills
That's where I want to be (Gimme gimme, gimme gimme)
Livin' in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills
Rolling like a celebrity (Gimme gimme, gimme gimme)
Livin' in Beverly Hills

The truth is I don't stand a chance
It's something that you're born into
And I just don't belong

No I don't
I'm just a no-class beat down fool
And I will always be that way
I might as well enjoy my life
And watch the stars play

Beverly Hills
That's where I want to be (Gimme gimme, gimme gimme)
Livin' in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills
Rolling like a celebrity (Gimme gimme, gimme gimme)
Livin' in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills (Yeah!)
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills (Gimme gimme, gimme gimme)
Livin' in Beverly Hills

See also

References