10 Rock Songs That Were Written For Somebody Else

9. Thought I Knew - Weezer

For all of the slogging that Weezer has taken in the press and from their fans, they at least seem to know when they've screwed up. While Make Believe did give them some of their biggest hits up to that point with Perfect Situation and Beverly Hills, there was a good percentage of their fanbase that could have done without them dumbing down their sound for the pop market. It was time to switch things up in the studio, and the Red Album gave us one of the biggest shakeups by showing us a Weezer without Rivers at the front.

Though the Buddy Holly glasses icon had been the de facto mouthpiece of the band since the beginning, the back half of this album shows the other band members turning in time behind the mic, with guitarist Brian Bell going full on power pop on Thought I Knew. Though Scott Shriner and Patrick Wilson wrote songs for this album as well, Thought I Knew never was supposed to be a Weezer song, being a staple of Brian's side project the Relationship before Rivers insisted on giving it the Weezer treatment.

There are two versions of this song out in the world, but the Weezer version is miles different from Brian's solo outing, replacing the minor key sounds of this breakup song with a bit more bounce and a subtle hint of sarcasm in the way Brian sings it. It might not have been the ideal way to be introduced to the song, but hearing this in the Weezer context is a showcase of what can be done when you cover yourself.