Image credit: James from Somerville, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsAbout the Weezer Favorites songbook series:
I’m a huge Weezer fan. What I love even more than listening to Weezer is arranging their songs for the piano in a way that stays true to the originals, but keeps them playable for intermediate level pianists. This has been a “heart songs” project and I’m sure there will eventually be more volumes. If you’re looking for Easy Weezer Favorites (arrangements for easy piano) I’ve got those too!
A couple of notes about this series:
I have omitted all of my arrangements of the songs from the Teal album. I love Teal, but wanted to stick to Weezer’s original stuff.
I tried to represent a bit of everything, the old, the new, the popular, the deeper cuts. These volumes are by no means exhaustive, but the series will undoubtedly continue to grow.
🎸 About Weezer
Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1992, consisting of members Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Scott Shriner, and Brian Bell. They have achieved significant success, selling over 10 million albums in the US and more than 35 million worldwide.
Their career includes notable albums such as the self-titled “Blue Album” in 1994, which was a multiplatinum success, and “Pinkerton” in 1996, which initially had mixed reviews but later gained critical acclaim. The band went on hiatus after “Pinkerton” and returned in 2001 with the “Green Album,” featuring a more pop sound and achieving commercial success. Bassist changes occurred during this period.
Weezer continued to release albums like “Maladroit” (2002) with a hard-rock sound and “Make Believe” (2005) with mixed reviews but a chart-topping single, “Beverly Hills.” In 2008, they released the “Red Album” with the hit single “Pork and Beans.” Subsequent albums, “Raditude” (2009) and “Hurley” (2010), had mixed reviews, but are valuable albums in the Weezer ouevre.
They returned to a rock style reminiscent of their 90s sound with “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” (2014) and the “White Album” (2016). “Pacific Daydream” (2017) featured a more mainstream pop sound, and in 2019, they released a covers album (the Teal Album) followed by the “Black Album.”
In 2021, Weezer released “OK Human,” featuring an orchestral pop sound, which received critical acclaim, and “Van Weezer,” inspired by hard rock. In 2022, they released a series of EPs based on the four seasons.
🎶 Weezer Favorites: Volume 3 Songbook
The following songs are included in the Weezer Favorites: Volume 3 songbook.
These are all available as separate singles, but you get the most value by purchasing the whole collection. All of these arrangements are appropriate for intermediates and up.
- All the Good Ones
- Bird with a Broken Wing
- Byzantine
- Dead Roses
- El Scorcho
- Endless Bummer
- Hero
- I Need Some of That
- Mexican Fender
- Zombie Bastards
🎹 Watch a performance of the entire volume:
⭐ Featured Favorites
Let’s dive deeper with some more details about a few of my personal favorites from Weezer Favorites: Volume 3 songbook.
1. “Bird with a Broken Wing” (2021)
The eighth track from OK Human, played live from The Walt Disney Concert Hall:
When asked about this song’s origins in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Cuomo said of the song, “I think I was just feeling pretty irrelevant and passed over, and past my prime, I guess. I was feeling pretty sorry about myself.”
🔎 Sheet music sneak peek:
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2. “El Scorcho” (1996)
Are you ready to shred this Pinkerton classic on the piano?:
“El Scorcho” originated from a guitar riff Rivers Cuomo wrote in 1992 for an 8-track demo titled “Simply State (and the Girl Will Follow).” While attending Harvard in December 1995, Cuomo used a piece of music he composed as homework for his Music 154 course as the basis for the chorus melody of “El Scorcho.” It marked one of the early songs written by Cuomo during his Harvard years, signaling a shift away from the “Songs from the Black Hole” album concept. The song’s title, “El Scorcho,” was inspired by the sauce “Del Scorcho” from the fast-food chain Del Taco.
In the song, Cuomo incorporated lines from an essay written by one of his classmates from an expository writing class, referencing events such as “Watching Grunge leg-drop New Jack through a press table” and “Listening to Cio-Cio San fall in love all over again.” The lyric “I’m the epitome of Public Enemy” is a nod to the song “Don’t Believe the Hype” by Public Enemy. Additionally, the mention of “shred[ding] the cello” suggests a connection to the girl mentioned in “Falling for You.”
Brian Bell’s vocals are featured at the beginning of the song, and he also handles the guitar solo. The song humorously mentions the band Green Day, with the lyric “I asked you to go to the Green Day concert/You said you never heard of them.” During live performances, Cuomo sometimes substitutes other bands’ names, depending on the tour.
“El Scorcho” faced commercial challenges, with some radio stations refusing to play it, and the music video struggling for airplay on MTV. However, it achieved success in Australia, reaching #9 on the Triple J Hottest 100 chart. A promotional CD of the song included edited versions that censor the lyric “Goddamn you half Japanese girls.”
The song was later featured in the video game Rock Band and its Track Pack Vol. 2, with an alternate guitar solo and vocal track compared to the album version.
🔎 Sheet music sneak peek:
3. “Hero” (2020)
“Hero” was first hinted at in the promotional game “The End of the Game” Game in March 2020. It was later confirmed as the third track on the album “Van Weezer.” The song’s release was teased through various online clues, and Rivers Cuomo performed it on piano during a webinar in May 2020.
Weezer performed “Hero” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in June 2020, and a piano version produced by Jake Sinclair was officially released on digital music platforms in July 2020.
The song’s music video, directed by Brendan Walter and Jasper Graham, was released on May 6, 2020. Initially, there were plans to create a video tribute to healthcare workers, but the concept was later changed to fans passing a folded paper in their videos.
🔎 Sheet music sneak peek:
4. “Endless Bummer” (2016)
The unofficial sequel to “Island in the Sun” - at least that’s my theory:
“Endless Bummer” is the tenth track from The White Album and has a great beachy vibe, rounded off by an awesome guitar solo at the end of the track that actually translated really well to the piano!
🔎 Sheet music sneak peek:
5. “Zombie Bastards” (2018)
The second track and second single from The Black Album:
The song’s existence was first hinted at on November 16, 2018, when a tweet containing the phrase “Die, die you zombie bastards” was posted. It was confirmed as a new song on November 17 in response to a fan’s tweet. The song’s release was confirmed the day before it came out, although its title was not revealed at that time.
In a November 2018 interview with Rivers Cuomo and Dave Sitek by Scott Heisel, it was mentioned that the original title of the song was “Die, Die You Zombie Bastards.”
The sample featuring actor Vincent Price saying “You know they’re out there, don’t you?” is from the 1964 film “Last Man on Earth.”
🔎 Sheet music sneak peek:
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