| "Say It Ain't So" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Weezer | ||||
| from the album Weezer | ||||
| Released | July 13, 1995 | |||
| Format | CD | |||
| Recorded | August–September, 1993 at Electric Lady Studios, NYC | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 4:18 (album version) 4:16 (remix) |
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| Label | DGC | |||
| Writer(s) | Rivers Cuomo | |||
| Producer | 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 single from their self-titled 1994 debut album.
Written (like most Weezer songs) by frontman Rivers Cuomo, the song came to be after he had all the music finished and one line, "Say it ain't so".[1] 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.[2]
In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked "Say It Ain't So" #72 on "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time."[3] Pitchfork Media included the song at number 10 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.[4]
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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 they released the single, they used the mix that kept the guitar feedback in the song. The band liked this mix so much they 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.
As noted in the Weezer DVD collection Video Capture Device and the slip cover of the re-released special edition of their debut album, they filmed the music video at the house where the band used to rehearse and record. The video also features a cameo by the band's webmaster/band photographer/archivist and close friend for many years, Karl Koch.
A small poster of Mercyful Fate/King Diamond frontman King Diamond is visible several times throughout the video, most clearly during the final chorus, just as Rivers Cuomo turns his mic around.
The band Further Seems Forever covered the song on the Weezer tribute album Rock Music: A Tribute to Weezer. An episode of "One Tree Hill" featured a cover by MoZella Wakey!Wakey!, and Juliana Hatfield. The Deftones, The Sleeping, Young Guns and Finch have also covered the song live. Asher Roth sampled the song for his debut rap single "I Love College". After the song leaked onto the internet, Rivers Cuomo reportedly refused to clear sample, which prompted Roth to debut a remixed version of his song as his official debut single.[5] Foster The People also covered the song in August 2011, after Weezer did a version of "Pumped Up Kicks".
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