"Beverly Hills" is Weezer's Kokomo

[Al Jardine: Pick Up Artist]

Both songs are/were popular but are often disliked by "hardcore" fans.

Both songs deal with wanting to be somewhere else.

Both songs mark a departure from the sound they are often associated with.

Both songs could have benefitted from never being recorded.

Depending on who you ask, each song is either the best or worst thing to ever happen to the band.

And it helps that Rivers Cuomo is a MAJOR Beach Boys fan.

[runnersdialzero]

Both songs mark a departure from the sound they are often associated with.

"Beverly Hills" bears a strong resemblance to several older Weezer songs like "Undone", "Keep Fishin'", and especially "El Scorcho". "Beverly Hills", to me, is basically an attempt at rewriting "El Scorcho" and going for the same goal as "El Scorcho" while obviously tweaking it a fair amount. The aim of both was for the songs to be huge hits, it's just that the former succeeded and the latter did not. Obviously that means nothing in terms of quality, but just sayin'.

There's also the unreleased "Blast Off!". Very similar chords and rhythms. "Mo Beats" is kind of similar, too.

[Aegir]

Yeah, I never thought Beverly Hills didn't sound like a Weezer song.

of course, casual Beach Boys fans never thought Kokomo didn't sound like a Beach Boys song, either. so I don't know.

[Al Jardine: Pick Up Artist]

I beg to differ that it is an attempt at rewriting El Scorcho, El Scorcho is MUCH closer to Undone (and to a lesser extent Keep Fishin'), and Beverly Hills just isn't. Beverly Hills is heavily-produced and feels like it was, I don't know, specifically constructed to be a hit (more so than the others, I don't know how to explain it).

Dammit runners, you got the intro to El Scorcho stuck in my head.

[Ron]

Both songs are/were popular but are often disliked by "hardcore" fans.

Both songs deal with wanting to be somewhere else.

Both songs mark a departure from the sound they are often associated with.

Both songs could have benefitted from never being recorded.

Depending on who you ask, each song is either the best or worst thing to ever happen to the band.

And it helps that Rivers Cuomo is a MAJOR Beach Boys fan.

You forgot one:

Both Songs are taken much more seriously by the fans than by the respective members of the band. 

[cablegeddon]

It's not a bad comparision but Weezer's fanbase is much more of the creddy, hip crowd.

And I don't hear as much desperation in Kokomo. BB were still doing their own thing on Kokomo.

Wasn't Kokomo a hit thanks to the movie/soundtrack?

[runnersdialzero]

Both Songs are taken much more seriously by the fans than by the respective members of the band. 

Don't think that's true of "Beverly Hills".