"Say It Ain't So" is a song by the American rock bandWeezer. It was released as the third and final single from the band's self-titled 1994 debut album. Written by frontmanRivers Cuomo, the song came to be after he had all the music finished and one line, "Say it ain't so". Cuomo made a connection to an incident in high school where he came home and saw a bottle of beer in the fridge. He believed his mother and father's marriage ended because his father was an alcoholic and this made him fear the marriage between his mother and step-father would end this way as well. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked "Say It Ain't So" #72 on "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time." Pitchfork Media included the song at number 10 on its Top 200 Tracks of the 90s. "Say It Ain't So" is a playable track in the video games Rock Band and Rocksmith 2014 in addition to appearing on an episode of Hindsight.
Composition
"Say It Ain't So" is an alternative rock and emo song that lasts a duration of four minutes and eighteen seconds. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Hal Leonard Music, it is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderate rocktempo of 76 beats per minute. "Say It Ain't So" is composed in the key of C sharp minor, while Rivers Cuomo's vocal range spans one octave, from the low-note of B3 to the high-note of B5. The song has a basic sequence of Cm7–Gadd9–A–E in the verses and interludes, changes to C5–G5–A5–E5 at the chorus and follows B5–Bmaj7–A–E5–G5 during the bridge as its chord progression.
Song mixes
Two mixes of the song exist. The original album pressings had a mix with slightly different sounding drums, bass and no guitar feedback. However, when the band released the single, the mix that kept the guitar feedback in the song was used. The band liked this mix so much that the members asked for it to replace the version on the album, after the album had sold 3 million copies. The album now features the version with the feedback. The deluxe version features both mixes.
Limited Edition 10": Geffen Records / GFSV 95 (UK)
;Side one
"Say It Ain't So" - 4:17
;Side two
"No One Else" - 3:15
"Jamie" - 3:53
Promo CD: Geffen Records / PRO CD 4742 (US)
"Say It Ain't So" - 4:17
Live acoustic tracks were recorded on April 1, 1995 at Cat's Paw Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.
Music video
The music video for "Say It Ain't So", directed by Sophie Muller, met with less success than the previous two Weezer videos directed by Spike Jonze, but the song still successfully climbed to the top 10 of the Modern Rock Tracks chart. As noted in the Weezer DVD collection and the slip cover of the re-released special edition of the group's debut album, the band filmed the music video at the house where the band used to rehearse and record. The video also features a cameo by the band's webmaster/band photographer/archivist and close friend for many years, Karl Koch. A small poster of Mercyful Fate/King Diamond frontman King Diamond is visible several times throughout the video, most clearly during the final chorus, just as Rivers Cuomo turns his mic around.
Covers
The band Further Seems Forever covered the song on the Weezer tribute album . An episode of "One Tree Hill" featured a cover by MoZella, Wakey!Wakey!, and Juliana Hatfield. Deftones, The Sleeping, Young Guns, Finch, Real Estate and Dashboard Confessional have also covered the song live. Asher Roth sampled the song for his debut rap single "I Love College". After the song leaked onto the internet, Rivers Cuomo reportedly refused to clear sample, which prompted Roth to debut a remixed version of his song as his official debut single. Foster The People also covered the song in August 2011, after Weezer did a version of "Pumped Up Kicks". Chiptune artist Inverse Phase parodied the song on a Commodore 64, titling it "Say It Ain't Sixty-FO" Calpurnia covered the song for Spotify’s Under Cover podcast in 2018
