Buddy Holly is a song written by Rivers Cuomo in 1993, right after Weezer was signed to Geffen Records, it was the second single released from the band’s eponymous debut album (The Blue Album). According to the liner for Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, Cuomo was inspired the song after borrowing a Korg Keyboard from one of his Santa Monica College choirmates. As he details:
Inspired by its goofy synth sounds, I decided to write some new-wave influenced songs.
The chorus melody, though, I came up with as I was walking the lawns of the campus. The melody was in time to my steps: “ooo-we-ooo I look just like Buddy Holly.” The lyrics I struggled with, trying to find the right reference point. An early version read, “ooo-we-ooo you look just like Ginger Rogers. Oh-oh I move just like Fred Astaire.”
The life-situation that inpsired the lyric was an incident in which the Weezer guys were making fun of my friend Kyung He (also in the Santa Monica College Choir). They were the “homies dissin’ my girl”.
The song remains one of Weezer’s most famous and popular songs, made even more popular for its Spike Jonze-directed music video, which features footage of the band spliced with footage from the television series Happy Days.
This particular recording is part of a set known as The Black Sessions, recorded in front of a live audience for the French radio station France Inter on February 21, 1995, where the band opened for Radiohead.
Lyrics:
What’s with these homies dissin’ my girl?
Why do they gotta front?
What did we ever do to these guys
That made them so violent?
Woo-hoo, but you know I’m yours
Woo-hoo, and I know you’re mine
Woo-hoo, and that’s for all of time
Ooo-ee-ooo I look just like Buddy Holly
Oh-oh, and you’re Mary Tyler Moore
I don’t care what they say about us anyway
I don’t care ‘bout that
Don’t you ever fear, I’m always near
I know that you need help
Your tongue is twisted, your eyes are slit
You need a guardian
Woo-hoo, and you know I’m yours
Woo-hoo, and I know you’re mine
Woo-hoo, and that’s for all of time
Bang! Bang! Knock on the door
Another big bang, get down on the floor
Oh No! What do we do?
Don’t look now, but I lost my shoe
I can’t run and I can’t kick
What’s-a-matter babe, are you feelin’ sick?
What’s-a-matter, what’s a matter, what’s a matter you?
What’s-a-matter babe, are you feelin’ blue?
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
And that’s for all of time