Weezer Scores Eighth Alternative Airplay No. 1 With ‘Records’

Weezer’s “Records” becomes the band’s eighth No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, lifting to the top of the Feb. 25-dated ranking.

Weezer now boasts four Alternative Airplay No. 1s in a row; each of the band’s entries this decade has led. “Hero” started the streak in 2020 (one week at No. 1 that August), followed by “All My Favorite Songs” (four weeks, July-August 2021) and “A Little Bit of Love” (two, June 2022).

The Rivers Cuomo-fronted band first topped Alternative Airplay in 2005 with its one-week No. 1 “Beverly Hills” (over a decade after the band’s first entry, the No. 6-peaking “Buddy Holly,” in 1994). Subsequently, the act’s “Perfect Situation” ruled for four weeks in 2006, followed by “Pork and Beans” (11 weeks, 2008) and its cover of Toto‘s “Africa” (three, 2018).

Weezer’s eight Alternative Airplay No. 1s slot the band into a tie for the seventh-most in the chart’s 34-year history, alongside U2. Red Hot Chili Peppers pace all acts with 15.

Most No. 1s, Alternative Airplay:

  • 15, Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • 12, Green Day
  • 11, Linkin Park
  • 10, Cage the Elephant
  • 10, Foo Fighters
  • 10, twenty one pilots
  • 8, U2
  • 8, Weezer
  • 7, Imagine Dragons

“Records” reigns in its 29th week on Alternative Airplay, completing Weezer’s longest trip to No. 1. It exceeds the 26-week journey of “All My Favorite Songs” in 2021.

Concurrently, “Records” ranks at its No. 6 high on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, with 3.7 million audience impressions, according to Luminate. It also earned a two-week appearance on Adult Alternative Airplay in August-September 2022, peaking at No. 38.

“Records” is the radio single from the EP SZNZ: Summer (released last June), part of Weezer’s overarching four-EP SZNZ project. Preceding Alternative Airplay No. 1 “A Little Bit of Love” is also from SZNZ, on the Spring edition.

Kevin Rutherford

Billboard