Beverly Hills Say It Aint So Island In The Sun Weezer

Beverly Hills Album: Make Believe (2005)
Say It Ain't So Album: Weezer (The Blue Album) (1994)
Island In The Sun Album: Weezer (The Green Album) (2001)
by Weezer

Lead singer Rivers Cuomo said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that Beverly Hills is about how he could live in Beverly Hills but he wouldn't fit in. "I could live in Beverly Hills, sure," he says, meaning he could afford it easily. "But I couldn't belong there.'"

Beverly Hills is a very wealthy area where many celebrities and socialites live.

Producer Rick Rubin worked on the album. He has worked with many successful bands, including Aerosmith and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Rivers Cuomo: "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."

Beverly Hills was Weezer's first Top 10 hit on the Hot 100 and their first song to top the mainstream rock chart.

Beverly Hills was featured on the TV series Malcolm in the Middle in the 2006 episode "Malcolm's Money" and on Cold Case in the 2007 episode "Knuckle Up."

Say It Ain't So is a cathartic one for Rivers Cuomo, who takes out his family frustrations in the lyric. He wrote the music for the song and had the title, but didn't know what the song would be about until he remembered an incident when he came home from high school and found a bottle of beer in the refrigerator belonging to his stepfather ("Somebody's Heine' is crowdin' my icebox").

Cuomo's family had been hurt by alcohol abuse in the past, as his father was an alcoholic and left the family when Rivers was four. When Cuomo saw the beer in the fridge, he thought his stepfather was also going to end up leaving.

Rivers Cuomo takes a shot at his biological father, Frank, in this song in the verse he starts with "Dear Daddy." After leaving the family when Cuomo was four, Rivers saw Frank infrequently until around the time when this song was released, at which point they renewed their relationship.

When Cuomo sings, "You've cleaned up, found Jesus," he's referring to his dad's religious epiphany: Frank became a Pentecostal preacher. Years later, Rivers enjoyed watching videos of his father's sermons, which often incorporated music (Frank was a professional drummer). This helped Rivers come to terms with his insecurities on stage - he never looked like a rock star and sometimes felt like he didn't belong on stage, but seeing his father do it helped Rivers realize that he had a genetic gift for performing.

Looking back at the lashing he gave his dad, Cuomo told Rolling Stone in 2014, "I was an angry young man. I was quick to point the finger."

The Say It Ain't So video was shot at the garage in the Los Angeles where Cuomo and Weezer bass player Matt Sharp lived. It was directed by Sophie Muller, whose extensive credits include most of the Eurythmics and Annie Lennox videos, and several by No Doubt.

The line, "Flip on the tele', wrestle with Jimmy" is a reference to Cuomo's brother, Jimmy. The other name mentioned in the song is "Stephen" ("This bottle of Stephen's"), which refers to their stepfather, Stephen Kitts.

Bass player Matt Sharp sang the falsetto vocals on The Blue Album, which is probably most easily recognizable on Say It Ain't So. These were, oddly enough, the first notes Sharp sang in front of anyone.

Island In The Sun was the second single from the album Green, following up "Hash Pipe," but it almost didn't make the album; producer Ric Ocasek fought for it and the song ended up being a radio hit.

Weezer started recording Island In The Sun on January 1, 2001 at Cello Studios in Los Angeles, which used to be a part of Western Studios, where Frank Sinatra, The Mamas And The Papas and The Beach Boys all recorded. Sometime in April 2001, someone stole a copy of the master tapes and leaked the album on the Internet in unfinished form.

Two different videos were made for this song. One shows the band playing at a Mexican wedding, and the other, more popular version shows the band cavorting with different wild animals another version was directed by Spike Jonze.

In 2006, Emma Roberts covered this for the soundtrack of Aquamarine.

In late 2001, the band began playing this in concert with a reworked version of the solo. In 2005, Rivers Cuomo would play this by himself on an acoustic guitar to open their encores.

Island In The Sun is the most-licensed track in the Weezer catalog. Frontman Rivers Cuomo told Billboard magazine: "The funny thing is, the song wasn't a real radio hit. I can only speculate that it's because the song has a cleaner guitar sound, which makes it easier for a more mainstream audience."