"Pork and Beans" is a song by the American alternative rock band Weezer, released on the group's 2008 self-titled album Weezer, also known as the Red Album. It was released to radio on April 22, 2008[1] and released in digital form on April 24.[3] The track debuted at number 19 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and spent eleven weeks at number one. The song charted in many countries such as Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Rivers Cuomo, lead singer and guitarist for Weezer, wrote the song in reaction to a meeting with Geffen executives, who told the band members that they needed to record more commercial material.[5]
Cuomo remarked, "I came out of it pretty angry. But ironically, it inspired me to write another song."[6]Jacknife Lee produced the track with the band in early 2008 in what was the third and final recording session for the album.[7] The many references to popular culture in the song are said to be a "statement of defiance" according to Internet reviewer David Ritter, who later describes it to be an "anti-anthem anthem" that opens up a "broad space for critical exploration of what it means to be an aging band in the major label system".[8]
Composition
According to the director of the video for "Pork and Beans", the song is about "the idea of being yourself, of being happy with who you are".[9] In the album notes, Cuomo compares this to Timbaland's music, "It actually sounds like a Timbaland kind of production; he has little baby crying type of sounds."[10] A reference is also made to Timbaland in the second verse with the line "Timbaland knows the way to reach the top of the chart".[11] The song similarly refers to items such as Rogaine and Oakleysunglasses.[12]
Reception
The song has been generally well received by critics.[7] Many reviewers were pleased with what they saw as a return-to-form sound reminiscent of the Blue Album (1994) and Pinkerton (1996) albums.[8][13][14][15]Pitchfork Media writer Marc Hogan gave the song a positive review and described the song as, "a catchy, self-referential rocker, with the buzzsaw guitars and big choruses of Weezer's glory days, and that familiar, self-assured lameness."[16] Simon Vozick-Levinson of Entertainment Weekly also gave the song a positive review, "That chunka-chunka guitar hook is pure [Weezer] gold, so much so that I didn't focus on Rivers Cuomo's very clever lyrics at first."[17]Stereogum was also impressed with the song stating it was a "sweet, savory dose of self-referential, self-deprecating Weezer rock ... This stuff sounds very familiar in a good, good way."[18]NME described the song as having "[Cuomo's] best chorus in ages".[12] However, Internet reviewer David Ritter suggested that the song was either "voided by the wholesale capitulation involved in going home and writing said commercial material" or "a calculated attempt to boost record sales by wrapping faux-defiance in pretty paper,"[8] going on to compliment its "Scorcho-y acoustic guitar," he then said that this, along with the "keyboard twinkles" and "squeals and squeaks", has little effect on the song and that they barely register on top of the much more noticeable lead vocals and power chords.[8]
Commercial performance
In terms of chart performance, "Pork and Beans" is one of Weezer's most successful singles in its 25-year career. Debuting at number 19, the song reached number one on the BillboardHot Modern Rock Tracks charts in only its third week on the charts. It became the group's ninth Top 10 hit on this chart and third number one overall and spent 11 weeks at number one,[19][20] making it one of only 17 songs to ever sit at number one on that particular chart for 10 weeks or longer and one of three songs to have spent 11 weeks at number one. It also represented its fastest rising single ever, reaching number one after a mere 11 days after release.[7] It debuted at number 39 on the BillboardHot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, where it is peaked at number 25 and debuted in the BillboardHot 100 at number 84 with 17,000 downloads of the song on iTunes and peaked at number 64.[21][22] "Pork and Beans" was voted number one on Toronto radio station 102.1 the Edge's list of Top 102 Songs of 2008.[23] This song was number 30 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008.[24]
Tay Zonday was one of the multiple YouTube stars who appeared in the video.
The video shares some thematic similarities with the music video for the Barenaked Ladies single "Sound of Your Voice", which also featured multiple YouTube celebrities. According to Cullen, the video was to be a "celebration of that creativity",[33] an idea that went over well with the members of the band.[34] Cullen wanted to embrace the concept of "about being happy with who you are".[33] Cullen hopes that the video will be "a living thing on the Internet"; as the video itself was a mash-up of Weezer's favorite stuff, Cullen hopes others will use the video to create their own mash-ups.[35] The YouTube celebrities were flown into Los Angeles, California to work with the band for the four-day shooting of the video.[34] The video, which quickly became popular, reached more than four million viewers in its first week and was that week's most-watched video.[33][34][35] It was the most popular video of the month in June, reaching 7.3 million views by June 16, 2008.[36][37] It was nominated for Best Editing for the 2008 MTVVideo Music Awards[38] and for Favorite Online Sensation at the 35th People's Choice Awards.[39] The video won a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video at the 51st Grammy Awards Show.[4]
On June 2, 2008, a video of an acoustic version of the song, with Brian Bell on guitar and Tay Zonday on vocals, was released on Weezer's official YouTube channel.[40]
