California Girls

"California Girls"
Single by The Beach Boys
from the album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
B-side	"Let Him Run Wild"
Released	July 12, 1965
Format	Vinyl
Recorded	track: April 6, 1965; Western Studios vocals: June 4, 1965; Columbia Records Studio
Genre	Sunshine pop
Length	2:38
Label	Capitol
Writer(s)	Brian Wilson/Mike Love
Producer	Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"Help Me, Rhonda"/"Kiss Me, Baby" (1965) "California Girls"/"Let Him Run Wild" (1965) "The Little Girl I Once Knew"/"There's No Other (Like My Baby)" (1965)

"California Girls" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love and recorded by The Beach Boys in 1965. It features contrasting verse-chorus form. The song was released as a single, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also appeared on the album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). It is one of The Beach Boys' most famous songs and has been included on countless greatest hits compilations.

The song "California Girls" is part of the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.^[1] In 2004, it was ranked #71 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.^[2]

Recording

The music for the song came from Brian Wilson's first LSD experience. ^[3] According to Brian Wilson himself in the Beautiful Dreamer documentary, shortly after taking LSD, he ran up to a bedroom and hid under a pillow, shouting "I'm afraid of my mom, I'm afraid of my dad." Some time later he left the room and went to a piano. He started playing in the bass the B-F#-G# pattern over and over, and then added in the right hand after a few minutes a B chord, moving to an A chord. Within a half hour, he had come up with the "well east-coast girls are hip, I really dig the styles they wear" part of the song. The next day, he and Mike Love supposedly finished off the remainder of the song.

"California Girls" was the first Beach Boys recording to feature vocals from Bruce Johnston, who had joined the group to substitute for Brian Wilson on concert tours.

Cultural impact

In addition to reaching #3 in the US, other countries where the song was highly popular include Canada (#2 in RPMs national chart), Rhodesia (also #2), and Sweden (#6). It peaked at #8 in Australia, and in South Africa it made one of the Beach Boys' best-ever international showings, staying six weeks at No. 1. Radio plays of the song in the United States alone are said to total between four and five million to date, thus making it the Beach Boys' biggest royalty earner.^{[citation needed]}

The song has been prominently referenced by other artists on more than one occasion. Most notably, the Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R." is considered an homage to the song.

A 1980s series of adverts for the former airline British Caledonian were another notable homage to the song, twisting the lines about California to become "I wish they all could all be Caledonian", in reference to the airline's flight attendants.

On her 2005 album, All Jacked Up, Gretchen Wilson (no relation to the Wilson brothers) performs a song composed with John Rich entitled "California Girls". Her song, a unique composition rather than a cover of the Beach Boys original, is instead a country-styled retort to Beach Boys song, featuring a chorus that asks, "ain't you glad we ain't all California girls?".

In Brian Wilson's 1998 concert Live at the Roxy he referred to "California Girls" as the theme song of The Beach Boys. In 2201 Ricky Martin sang a cover version on An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson. The song has been also heard in the pre-title sequence of the James Bond movie (starring Roger Moore) , A View to a Kill in 1985.

This song can be heard at the beginning of Rush Hour 2 where main characters Lee (played by Jackie Chan) and Carter (played by Chris Tucker) sing along to the song as it plays on the radio. In Rush Hour 3, Lee uses it as his ringtone when Carter calls him at the beginning, and later on in the movie a french performer sings the song on the street where Carter is eating dinner.

Principal Belding from Saved by the Bell tells Zack that it is his all time favourite song and walks off screen, humming the song.

The song was sampled by rapper Tyga in his demo song titled "California Girls".

In 2004 the song was covered for a Cotton commercial featuring mannequins.

Musicians

• Hal Blaine - drums
• Frank Capp - vibraphone
• Roy Caton - trumpet
• Jerry Cole - 12-string guitar
• Al de Lory - organ
• Steve Douglas - tenor saxophone
• Al Jardine - vocals
• Bruce Johnston - vocals
• Carol Kaye - bass guitar
• Mike Love - lead vocals
• Jay Migliori - baritone saxophone
• Jack Nimitz - bass saxophone
• Lyle Ritz - upright bass
• Howard Roberts - guitar
• Leon Russell - piano
• Billy Strange - tambourine
• Brian Wilson - vocals
• Carl Wilson - 12-string guitar, vocals
• Dennis Wilson - vocals

David Lee Roth cover

"California Girls"
Single by David Lee Roth
from the album Crazy from the Heat
Released	1985
Format	CD single
Recorded	1985
Genre	Pop
Length	2:50
Label	Warner Bros.
David Lee Roth singles chronology
"California Girls" (1985) "Just a Gigolo"/"I Ain't Got Nobody" (1985)

"California Girls" was covered by Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth on his 1985 EP Crazy from the Heat (with background vocals contributed by Beach Boy Carl Wilson along with Christopher Cross), and like the original it topped at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Music video

The iconic music video for the cover, directed by Pete Angelus and David Lee Roth, was released in February, 1985.^[4] Roth stars as a tour guide, showing tourists the beach and the obligatory swimsuit models. One of these tourists is notably played by Jane Leeves who went on to play Frasier's Daphne Moon. The scenes follow the lyrics with bikini-clad women from all regions of the United States. An often imitated scene has Roth dancing down a sidewalk bordered by models frozen in mannequin poses. It was nominated for several 1985 MTV Video Music Awards.

See also

• List of songs by The Beach Boys

References