Heart Songs

This ode to the soundtrack of Rivers Cuomo's youth lists all of the frontman's artists and records that have influenced him. He told MTV News that it ranged from "From Gordon Lightfoot's 'Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald' when I was 5 to Nirvana's Nevermind."

Rolling Stone magazine asked Cuomo how he chose which artists to include in this song. He replied: "The references in 'Heart Songs' came about very quickly, spontaneously, and with very little thought. It was literally "OK, I'm going to make a list of songs that I remember, chronologically, in a couple of minutes." I didn't go back and fill in any blanks or prioritize. So there are some songs that I just remember hearing when I was five, and some that were extremely important to me, and others that I didn't like at all, but they have a certain nostalgic value."

One of the songs Cuomo refers to in this song is Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald." The Weezer frontman explained to American Songwriter Magazine why this song was particularly significant to him as a child: "Music hits you in a heavier way when you're a kid, and that was what I was thinking back on - how I felt as a kid listening to the radio and records, going back as far 'Edmund Fitzgerald.' My family had a 45" of that song, and I remember it used to just scare me to death. It was so spooky, and just shook the foundations of my soul."