Weezer has scored its ninth No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart with We Might as Well Be Strangers, featuring indie rock band Wednesday, climbing from No. 2 to No. 1 on the chart dated 31 October, according to Men’s Journal, Parade and Billboard’s own chart report as republished by Europe Says and Apex News. The track gives Weezer its ninth chart-topper and Wednesday its first.
Released on 3 June as the second single from Weezer’s 20th studio album, Weezer, also known as The Gold Album, which arrived on 21 August, the song features Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman on vocals and Xandy Chelmis on pedal steel guitar, according to Men’s Journal and Europe Says. It reached the top with a 7 per cent increase in plays in the 16-22 October tracking week, according to Luminate figures cited by Europe Says.
Seventh act to reach nine No. 1s
With nine Alternative Airplay No. 1s, Weezer becomes just the seventh act in the chart’s 38-year history to collect at least nine, joining Red Hot Chili Peppers with 15, Cage the Elephant, Linkin Park and Twenty One Pilots with 14 each, Green Day with 13 and Foo Fighters with 12, according to Europe Says. The group formed in Los Angeles in 1992, making the latest victory arrive 34 years after the band first came together, according to Men’s Journal.
For Wednesday, the North Carolina indie-rock band led by Hartzman, the No. 1 is a breakthrough: the band had previously charted three songs on Adult Alternative Airplay, with Elderberry Wine peaking at No. 11 in 2025, according to Europe Says, but had never topped a Billboard airplay chart. Frontman Rivers Cuomo shares vocals with Hartzman, whose raw, conversational style gives the track a different texture from Weezer’s classic hits, according to Parade.
A Gold Album single with legs
When Strangers debuted in July, it became Weezer’s 36th career entry on Alternative Airplay, the sixth most in the chart’s history, according to Europe Says. Its climb to No. 1 in late October, nearly five months after release, shows a slow-burning radio hit rather than a debut-week spike. Weezer has also announced a 2027 Australian and New Zealand tour with Third Eye Blind and Fountains of Wayne, according to Happymag and Blunt Magazine, giving the chart success a live counterpart in the new year.
