Rivers Cuomo had a difficult childhood. His biological father developed a severe drinking problem before leaving his mother, and one day Rivers came home from school and found a bottle of booze in the fridge. He worried that it meant his new family was about to break apart also, and years later he tapped into that memory when writing "Say It Ain't So." It was the final single from The Blue Album and it failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100, but it's widely seen now as one of the greatest songs of the decade. The opening chords alone bring a smile to most everyone that was a teenager in 1994.