“California Girls” by The Beach Boys

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“California Girls” by The Beach Boys

	song info     “California Girls” by The Beach Boys is a surf song.     Song Title: California Girls     Artist: the Beach Boys     Album: Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)     Genre: pop rock, oldies, classic rock, surf     Composer: Copyright © 1965 Brian Wilson, Mike Love     Vocals: Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson     Guitar: Howard Roberts     12-String Guitar: Jerry Cole, Carl Wilson     Piano: Leon Russell     Organ: Al de Lory     Vibraphone: Frank Capp     Bass Guitar: Carol Kaye     Upright Bass: Lyle Ritz     Drums: Hal Blaine     Tambourine: Billy Strange     Tenor saxophone: Steve Douglas     Baritone saxophone: Jay Migliori     Bass saxophone: Jack Nimitz     Trumpet: Roy Caton     Producer: Brian Wilson     Recorded: music tracks: 6 April 1965 at Western Studios     vocals: 4 June 1965 at Columbia Records Studio     Released: 12 July 1965     Label: Capitol Nashville     This song won the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing and was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Pop Video, and Best Female Video.     Number of listens: 17072     Current rank: 706 (updated weekly)     Highest rank: 701 (play the video all the way through to register a vote for this song) Translations courtesy of Apple and Google.

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “California Girls” is a song by American rock band The Beach Boys, featured on their ninth studio album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965). Written by band-members Brian Wilson (who conceived the song during an LSD trip) and Mike Love, the song features contrasting verse-chorus form. Upon its release as a single, “California Girls” reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
    It is one of The Beach Boys’ most famous songs and has been included on countless greatest hits compilations. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included the song in its of the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 71st on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. David Lee Roth covered the song in 1985, also peaking at #3 on the Billboard charts.

Composition
    The music for the song came from Brian Wilson’s first LSD experience. In the Beautiful Dreamer documentary, Wilson said that 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.” Sometime later, he left the room and went to a piano. He started playing in the bass the B-F♯-G♯ patternover 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. Bruce’s vocals can be heard at the end of the song.

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most recent comment

    Wolf: California Girls is Paul’s favorite song.

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