Beverly Hills (song)

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“Beverly Hills”
“Beverly Hills” cover
Single by Weezer
from the album Make Believe
Released March 29, 2005
Format CD
Recorded 2004
Genre Alternative rock
Length 3:20
Label Geffen
Producer Rick Rubin
Weezer singles chronology
"Keep Fishin'"
(2002)		 "Beverly Hills"
(2005)		 "We Are All on Drugs"
(2005)
Make Believe track listing
  1. "Beverly Hills"
  2. "Perfect Situation"
  3. "This Is Such a Pity"
  4. "Hold Me"
  5. "Peace"
  6. "We Are All on Drugs"
  7. "The Damage In Your Heart"
  8. "Pardon Me"
  9. "My Best Friend"
  10. "The Other Way"
  11. "Freak Me Out"
  12. "Haunt You Every Day"

"Beverly Hills" is the first single from Weezer's fifth album, Make Believe. It was released on March 29, 2005. 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.

Contents

[edit] Inspiration

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."[1]

[edit] Success

The song is the band's most commercially successful single to date, best remembered for its I-IV-V harmony, 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. 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 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[2]

"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," the Make Believe's third single, which held the pole position for 4 weeks.

The song was the top-selling digital download of 2005 according to Nielsen SoundScan.[3]

Rivers Cuomo stated 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."[4]

[edit] Cell phone leak

A notable moment among Weezer fans took place after the song's video shoot, in which the band's fans were prominently featured after a request 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.

[edit] Inclusions and variations

[edit] Track listing

UK Retail 7" (Picture Disc)

  1. "Beverly Hills"
  2. "Butterfly" (Live)

UK Retail CD

  1. "Beverly Hills"
  2. "Island in the Sun" (Live)
  3. "Butterfly" (Live)
  4. "Beverly Hills" (CD-ROM Track)

[edit] Personnel

[edit] References

  1. ^ Make Believe: Track By Track. Weezer.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.
  2. ^ http://www.wjbq.com/rftp/nmc/news/10323.html Wjbq.com
  3. ^ http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/2819.html Mp3.com
  4. ^ Rivers Cuomo Fan Interview 2006. Weezer.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.

[edit] 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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Weezer
Brian Bell · Rivers Cuomo · Scott Shriner · Patrick Wilson
Jason Cropper · Matt Sharp · Mikey Welsh
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