Following a string of successful albums, Weezer released their fifth offering, Make Believe, in 2005. The first single, “Beverly Hills,” has gone on to become a fixture in pop culture from that era of smart indie-rock. But initially, many fans misconstrued the song’s meaning as irony. Or, at the very least, disdainful of a specific Hollywood-adjacent lifestyle.
However, despite the misunderstanding, “Beverly Hills” has always been a genuine expression of ambitious hopes and dreams. Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo has often explained the backstory of the band’s most misunderstood song.
“I don’t know if this is still the case, but I often heard that people thought I was making fun of Beverly Hills, that I was being sarcastic in the chorus when I say, ‘That’s where I want to be.’ I was 100 percent sincere when I wrote it,” he told Vulture in 2023.
He continued, “I know it doesn’t sound all that virtuous to have a craving to live in Beverly Hills and be a real celebrity, but that is the feeling I was having in the moment I wrote that song. So I was surprised that people took it the other way.”
One of Weezer’s Biggest Hits Was Based on Rivers Cuomo’s Genuine Desire to Live in Beverly Hills
Rivers Cuomo expanded on the “Beverly Hills” misunderstanding in another interview, according to an archived account of Weezer’s recording history.
“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,” he explained.
“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.”
Drummer Patrick Wilson added to the conversation surrounding “Beverly Hills” as well. “I think that’s—that happens a lot with Weezer songs. People think we’re being funny, and then somehow it changes into something [else].”
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