"Buddy Holly" by Weezer

It was thirty years ago today that Weezer's self-titled debut album, also known as the Blue Album, was released. Weezer had only formed a little over two years earlier, on February 14 1992, in Los Angeles. In those early days Weezer often found themselves playing to small audiences, their style being grunge, the dominant sound of the time. Fortunately, the band did attract the interest of recording executives. They recorded a demo tape, The Kitchen Tape, in August 1992. The tape led to the band being signed by Geffen Records.

Many of the songs that appeared on The Kitchen Tape also appeared on the Blue Album, including their hits "Undone--the Sweater Song." The album was produced by Ric Ocasek, formerly of The Cars. The debut single from the album was "Undone--the Sweater Song," which went to no. 6 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. Their second single, "Buddy Holly," would perform even better. It went to no. 2 on the Modern Rock chart. The third single from the album, "Say It Ain't So," also did well. It went to no. 7 on the chart. As to the Blue Album itself, it went to no. 47 on the Billboard album chart.

My favourite song from the Blue Album (my favourite song by Weezer, for that matter) has always been "Buddy Holly." The song very nearly did not make it onto the album. Rivers Cuomo thought the song was "cheesy" and did not necessarily represent the direction Weezer's sound was taking. Producer Ric Ocasek championed the song, and persuaded the band to include the song on the album. It turned out to be one of their biggest hits.

Of course, "Buddy Holly" is well known for its music video directed by Spike Jonze. The video portrays Weezer performing the song at Arnold's Drive-In from Happy Days, complete with the various characters from the sitcom. What is remarkable about the video utilized no CGI. Instead the video for "Buddy Holly" using clips from the show combined with some inventive editing and camerawork, as well as a cameo by Al Molinaro as Al (whose appearance hadn't really changed since Happy Days had gone off the air 1984). The illusion of the Fonz dancing to Weezer was done through combing footage of Fozie from Happy Days with a body double. The video proved to be popular, and it won Best Alternative Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction and Best Editing at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. It had been nominated for Video of the Year

Without further ado, here is "Buddy Holly" by Weezer.