It’s 2018 and a very-much-a-90’s band is enjoying their biggest commercial success for a looong time with a cover of a very-much-an-80’s song all thanks to constant prompting from a twitter account after a fan saw said song on a programme produced by a streaming giant.

I am, of course, talking about Weezer and ‘Africa.’ Having heard the song used on Netflix’ ‘Stranger Things’ (of which I still haven’t been bothered enough to check out), a 15 year-old fan decided it would be a great idea for her favourite band to cover it and started a Twitter account called “@WeezerAfrica” and started messaging the band with tweets like “it’s about time you bless the rains down in Africa” etc.

Oddly, it worked. After trolling her by releasing a cover of ‘Rosanna‘, Rivers & Co dropped a cover of Africa. As covers go it’s alright; nothing new on the original save the addition of some power chords and a little more dancing on the keys. Still it’s a lot of fun and I’m sure I’ll have “do do do de do do dooo” in my head forevermore.

 

If it sounds like it was recorded quickly and without any real effort it’s because it probably was: I genuinely don’t think anyone expected it to turn into the ‘hit’ it has or for it to receive so much attention. Both the radio stations I flick between in the morning made it their record of the week, I’ve seen that the band have been popping on tv shows various and numerous to play the track (even being joined by Toto member Steve Pocaro) and – in a world where streams count toward such things – it’s seen them crack the Hot100 in the States for the first time in a long long time.

While Weezer are definitely in my wheelhouse and collection*, this isn’t a ‘music news’ blog and Toto are far from the variety of music usually covered on these ‘pages’ so: why mention it?

Well I’m here to place a wager. Weezer were due to be dropping their ‘Black’ album (Weezer have a series of self titled albums – their debut, third, sixth and tenth – with the band photographed against a different coloured backdrop and known by their colours) any day now. It had been rumoured for a June release. There’s no sign of it. Now while Weezer themselves might not be so cynical or money-driven (although they have done the music cruise thing) they are signed to a label, a major one at that – Atlantic.

Now I’m here to (cynically) bet that someone at Atlantic Records will be very much aware of how much attention ‘Africa’ has gotten their charges and noted that this ‘whimsical cover’ has gotten far more radio play, streams and downloads than their original compositions have for some time and that either before we get the Black album, or very soon after, we’ll get a Weezer Covers album.

To be fair, the band have a good few available to begin pulling that track list together soon. In between releasing dire albums of their own they recorded a note for note cover of ‘Paranoid Android.’

Not to mention their cover of ‘Unbreak My Heart’ – yes; the Toni Braxton one – from the 2010 odds-and-sods comp Death to False Metal and the numerous covers that pepper their b-sides and bonus tracks including surprisingly good takes on ‘Viva la Vida’ and ‘Are Friends Electric’…So, my bet is that – now that the wider music world is aware of Weezer’s capability with a cover its only a small matter of time before label or band cashes in.

Oh, and if you’re after the definitive cover of ‘Africa’, don’t worry; I’ve got what you need right here.

*Eleven studio albums which, on the Mumbling About scale, have a ‘Very Good, Ok, Absolute Shite’ ratio of 5:3:3.