When I played a set of songs about US cities last Tuesday I mentioned that I might be doing it again this week. But I changed my mind after a comments chat with Di, who planted the seed of an idea. We talked about songs with states in their titles, and I mentioned how easy one of them (at least) would be. So that’s what I’m doing: this week it is (almost) songs with California in their title. I’ve had to leave out a couple of really good ones to keep this down to five, but those that made the cut are great, trust me!

Let’s start in my favourite musical decade – back to the Sixties we go:

Ah, those were the days. I was born and grew up in a seaside town. Admittedly Dover wasn’t quite Monterey but we had our moments! California Girls was the opening track on side two of the Beach Boys’ album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!!), their ninth album in a spell of fewer than three years since they started out: it was released in July 1965, peaking at #2 in the US and at #4 in the UK. This song was released as single a week after the album, and made #3 in the US but only #26 in the UK. I guess it must have reminded us that we didn’t quite have the same weather, or such great beaches!

This next one is one of the more reflective songs from the guys who, at that time, were well on their way to becoming the biggest rock band in the world:

Going To California was a track on Led Zeppelin’s fourth album, which was officially untitled, coming to be known either as Led Zeppelin IV or Four Symbols, from the pictures on the cover. It was released in November 1971, and reached #1 in the UK and Canada, but only #2 in the US. The sales figures tell the full story though: over 37m copies worldwide, including 24m in the US, 2m in Canada and 1.8m in the UK. This is still one of my favourite albums, not just by Led Zeppelin but by anyone, and ranks for me right up there with Led Zeppelin II as one of the all time great rock records. I just about played my copy to death during my days at uni!

You may have spotted that at the beginning of this piece I said that today’s tunes would almost have California in their title. This is why:

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers released their Californication album in June 1999, and it reached #3 in the US and #5 in the UK, though it did get to #1 in both Australia and New Zealand. It has sold more than 15m copies worldwide, including 7m in the US and 1.2m in the UK. The title track was the fourth to be taken as a single, but not until June 2000 by when most seemed to have already bought the album: it only got to #69 in the US and #16 in the UK. It is a very dark song, as Wikipedia tells us: it explores the dark side of Hollywood and the export of culture through the movie industry. The song begins “Psychic spies from China try to steal your mind’s elation.” It also makes references to topics such as pornography (“hardcore soft porn”) and plastic surgery (“pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging”) and even some pop culture references including Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain and David Bowie. As I said, quite a deep and dark song, but it is one I’ve always liked. And as pop culture references go, theming the video around a video game is a great idea: it is superbly well done.

Let’s lighten things up a bit now. How about a song which says how much these guys are missing the state while they are on the other side of the country:

The Mamas & the Papas were only together for a few years, from 1965 to 1968, and then again for a brief reunion in 1971. They made five albums and quite a few singles in that time, however. California Dreaming was a single in December 1965, and was later included on their debut album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears, which came out in February 1966. The single peaked at #4 in the US and #9 in the UK, while the album went to #1 in the US and #3 in the UK. They had several more big hits, including the follow up to this one: Monday Monday (US #1, UK #3). Their lives were complicated but their music wasn’t: beautiful melodies and harmonies were their trademark, and they are still good to hear today.

My final song tor today is, perhaps, the most obvious choice I could have made. I thought long and hard about including it, not because I didn’t want to but because of the controls exercised by the record label, which make it very hard to get a version that will play everywhere. So, with that risk in mind, here is one of the greatest rock songs of all time:

That is the official video for Hotel California from the Eagles official YouTube channel, so I hope it worked for you. I tried to find an official version of the song in an audio-only format, but there doesn’t appear to be one! So in case the first one didn’t work for you here is a link to an unofficial audio-only version, which might help. It has been on YouTube ten years so I hope they don’t choose to take it down now. There are times when I hate record companies! Hotel California was the Eagles’ fifth album, released in December 1976 and reaching #1 in the US, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand, and #2 in the UK. This track was issued as a single in February 1977, and got to #1 in the US and Canada, and to #8 in the UK. The album has sold around 34m copies worldwide, including 26m in the US, 1.8m in the UK and 1m in Canada, and the single has also sold 1.8m in the UK, plus a further 1m hard copies and 3m downloads in the US. By anyone’s standards, this was a success! I loved it then and I love it now: a superb album.

That’s a wrap for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed the change of plan, and I still have the remaining list of city songs to play at some point. Or maybe I could try another state – for some inexplicable reason Georgia seems to be on my mind at present…

Have a great week, and I’ll see you again soon 😊🎶