By Richard Speed
Publication Date: 2026-02-11 13:22:00
Microsoft’s Raymond Chen has revealed an unexpected use for the company’s lawyers: securing permission from the cast of Happy Days so a Weezer music video could ship on the Windows 95 CD.
The video in question was to demonstrate the multimedia capabilities of Microsoft’s successor to the Windows 3.x era. As well as all that 32-bit goodness, the operating system could play back a small, grainy video, and Microsoft included some music videos to emphasize the point.
One was Edie Brickell’s “Good Times” and another was “Buddy Holly” from Weezer’s debut album. Both tracks were recent, and Chen recalled the steps Microsoft had to take to get the latter in front of Windows 95 customers.
“First, Microsoft had to secure the rights to the song itself, which was negotiated directly with Weezer’s publisher Geffen Records, and apparently without the knowledge of the band members themselves,” Chen wrote on his Old New…
