Microsoft lawyers had to consult with representatives of The Fonz to get a Weezer music video on the Windows 95 install CD

Various screens from Weezer's Buddy Holly music video, featuring clips from Happy Days. — (Image credit: Weezer, YouTube, Happy Days, ABC)

Longtime Microsoft insider Raymond Chen has returned with another cracking anecdote from the days of Windows 95. His latest blog post concerns the fun freebies packaged alongside the OS to showcase Windows 95's multimedia capabilities—turns out, Weezer's Buddy Holly music video presented a tricky rights situation before it was cleared for inclusion.

For those not old and wizened like me, Weezer's Buddy Holly music video is a loving homage to Happy Days, an American sitcom steeped in 50's nostalgia which ran from 1974 to 1984. Clips from the show are interspersed and cleverly blended with more contemporaneous footage of the band performing in their sweet little cardigans.

It's a neat effect for sure, but it meant that Microsoft didn't just have to get the rights to just the song audio. The company also had to seek the permission of every on-screen Happy Days actor before they could legally redistribute the music video—including, most prominently, Henry Winkler of Arthur 'The Fonz' Fonzarelli fame.

Raymond Chen writes, "The lawyer responsible for securing the rights to the video [...] thoroughly enjoyed the assignment. I don’t know whether he got to talk to the actors directly, or only to their agents, but I can imagine it being an interesting experience trying to find Henry Winkler’s telephone number (or his agent’s telephone number) with a chance of talking to The Fonz himself."

Conversely, it was easy enough to clear the song itself for redistribution—though it was Weezer's label, Geffen Records, that provided permission rather than the musicians themselves, causing at least a little consternation at the time.

Weezer - Buddy Holly (Official Music Video) - YouTube

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Longtime Weezer collaborator Karl Koch told Magnet magazine back in 2014, "Nobody in the band even had a computer at that [time] so we had no idea how big a deal that was" (via Genius and Phawker).

Drummer Pat Wilson also reflected, "I was furious because at the time I was like, ‘How are they allowed to do this without our permission?’ Turns out it was one of the greatest things that could have happened to us. Can you imagine that happening today? It’s like, there’s one video on YouTube, and it’s your video.”

It was hardly the only time Microsoft leveraged popular music; The Rolling Stones' Start Me Up memorably scores some of Windows 95's earliest ads (and you can read about how Microsoft scored those song rights in this blog post by former senior vice president Brad Chase).

Given the highs and low-lows of Windows 11, perhaps Microsoft will be inclined to find another killer theme song for the next version of their OS before long. Considering that last year Microsoft's Windows and devices boss Pavan Davuluri pitched an all-seeing, voice-controlled chatbot that gives you productivity 'superpowers', I'm personally not in a rush to see Windows 12.

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Jess has been writing about games for over ten years, spending the last seven working on print publications PLAY and Official PlayStation Magazine. When she’s not writing about all things hardware here, she’s getting cosy with a horror classic, ranting about a cult hit to a captive audience, or tinkering with some tabletop nonsense.

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