"Beverly Hills" is a song by American rock bandWeezer. It is the first single from the band's fifth album, Make Believe. "Beverly Hills" was released to radio on March 29, 2005. The song features Stephanie Eitel of Agent Sparks on the chorus on backup vocals, performing the "Gimme, gimme" hook.
Inspiration
'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."
Chart performance
The song was the band's most commercially successful single. It topped the BillboardModern Rock Tracks chart for a week, spending months near the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and being certified gold on June 6, 2005; it was also the band's first song to chart there since "Undone – The Sweater Song" at number 57 in 1994 after 11 years since the rest of Weezer's other hits from the past had only managed to chart only on the Hot 100 Airplay or the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. As of September 2018, 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, Mainstream Top 40, Hot Digital Songs and Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song also made the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number nine, 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 Broadcast Music Incorporated Pop Awards. "Beverly Hills" stayed at number one on the Modern Rock charts for one week. It was the first number one for Weezer, but this record was later met with "Perfect Situation," Make Believes third single, which held the pole position for four weeks. The song was the third highest selling digital download of 2005 in the US according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Legacy
Lead singerRivers Cuomo stated that "Beverly Hills" and its solo, third verse, and last chorus of "Falling for You" 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." "Weird Al" Yankovic included the song in his polka medley "Polkarama!" from his 2006 album, Straight Outta Lynwood.
