“Buddy Holly” by Weezer

"Buddy Holly" was the second single from Weezer's 1994 debut, the self-titled record known as the Blue Album, and DGC released it on September 7, 1994, the day Buddy Holly would have turned 58. Rivers Cuomo wrote it, and the lyrics name-check Holly himself and Mary Tyler Moore.

Ric Ocasek produced, with Chris Shaw engineering, and he let the band be exactly what they were: a quartet that loved crunchy guitars and dorky harmonies in equal measure. Cuomo and Brian Bell crank out chunky power chords, Matt Sharp's bass bounces along, Patrick Wilson keeps the beat tight and square, and Cuomo, Bell and Sharp pile their voices into a chorus that sounds like a garage band raised on vintage doo-wop. It's geek rock with a buzzsaw heart, and it's impossible to shake.

It went to No. 2 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks and No. 18 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and hit No. 12 in the UK when it was released there in 1995. Spike Jonze's video dropped the band into footage from Happy Days, and it got a huge extra push when Microsoft bundled it as a bonus file with Windows 95. VH1 put it at No. 59 among the best songs of the '90s in 2007, Rolling Stone has kept it on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time through three editions, most recently at No. 484 in 2021, and the digital single went four-times platinum in 2026.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.