El Scorcho

by

Weezer

Edit

"El Scorcho" is the first single off the second album Pinkerton by Weezer, released in 1996. The music video features the band playing in an old ballroom in Los Angeles (as revealed by Weezer's Video Capture Device DVD), surrounded by light fixtures of diverse origin, flashing in time to the music. The name of the song was supposed to have come from a packet of hot sauce from Del Taco, labeled "Del Scorcho."

The song was a somewhat unconventional single for the band, featuring a loose, often wandering riff, improvised-sounding vocal contributions from all the band members, and a sudden shift into double-time and a different music style for the bridge. The track failed commercially; several radio stations refused to play the song, and the video stiffed on MTV. This is considered to be one of the causes for the initial commercial failure of the album.

It was, however, extremely popular in Australia, and made it to #9 on the Triple J Hottest 100 chart, the national poll for the most popular alternative songs. It was subsequently released on the 1996 Triple J Hottest 100 compilation.

The song can be downloaded for play at either Rock Band or Rock Band 2.