Beverly Hills (song)

"Beverly Hills"
Single by Weezer
from the album Make Believe
Released	March 29, 2005
Format	CD
Recorded	2004
Genre	Alternative rock, power pop
Length	3:18
Label	XL
Writer(s)	Rivers Cuomo
Producer	Rick Rubin
Weezer singles chronology
"Keep Fishin'" (2002) "Beverly Hills" (2005) "We Are All on Drugs" (2005)

"Beverly Hills" is a song by the American alternative rock band Weezer. It is the first single from the band'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.

Inspiration

Rivers 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."

Success

The song was the band's most commercially successful single until "Pork and Beans" was released, 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 December 2010, it is still the band's highest-charting Hot 100 single. 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 peak).

The song also made the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #9, and remaining on the chart for five 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.

"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," 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.

Rivers Cuomo stated that "Beverly Hills" along with the solo, third verse, and last chorus of "Falling for You" (from Pinkerton), are his proudest musical achievements: "It's 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."

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.

Inclusions and variations

• A remix of the song called "Beverly Hills (Urbanix Mix)" appears on the "We Are All on Drugs" single.
• 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.
• The song was also used in 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, Bring It On: All or Nothing.
• The song is featured on E4's promotional material for the new The CW teen drama, 90210.
• A parody of the song called "Waverly Hills" was featured in an episode of The Simpsons in 2009.
• The song is featured on the rhythm video game DJ Hero as part of a mix with the song "Fresh Rhymes and Videotape" by Evidence featuring The Alchemist, Aceyalone, Rakaa & 88 Keys. It's also one of the 10 songs in the game to feature a guitar track along with the DJ track.
• The song is available as downloadable content for the video games Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5.
• The song was featured in the trailers for the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
• The song is featured in promos for Bravo show, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
• An edited, kid-friendly version has received airplay on Radio Disney.

(2005 Charts) U.S. Billboard Hot 100: 10

Personnel

• Rivers Cuomo – lead guitar, lead vocals
• Patrick Wilson – drums, percussion
• Brian Bell – rhythm guitar, vocals
• Scott Shriner – bass guitar
• Rick Rubin – producer
• Rich Costey – mixer

References

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

External links

• Lyrics for "Beverly Hills"
• Video Shoot
• "Beverly Hills" Official music video on YouTube