15 Classic Songs About California
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California Songs, California Promises
It may be impossible to capture California's essence in a single piece of music, but the 15 songs on this list are classic attempts at that task.
These 15 California songs — all from the 1960s and 1970s — still manage to capture pieces of the Golden State. The songs cover California: its days and nights, its beaches and cities, its newcomers and fads, its drivers and dreamers.
Listen, and you'll likely yearn for sunshine. Listen, and you may well hear an echo of the California soul.
Where To FInd Other Songs About California
- 10 Songs About Northern California
Few cities in Northern California get sung about the way Los Angeles does. Here's celebrating 10 Northern cities that have made their way into song. - California Calling: 10 Songs About Moving to California
Thinking of leaving home for California? These 10 songs will get you packed up and moving to the Golden State. California's calling. - 10 Songs About Southern California
These 10 songs about places in Southern California trace the region from San Diego to Santa Monica to San Simeon. - 10 California Beach Songs
California beach songs are as bright and mellow as sunshine itself, and these 10 songs are great for a California beach party. - California Dystopia: 10 Songs About California and Broken Dreams
Some California dreams are broken, and not everything in the state is golden. These 10 songs about California detail the state's flaws and letdowns. - California Freeway Melody: 10 Songs For A California Road Trip
In California, life takes gasoline. Find proof in these 10 songs celebrating California's car culture.
1) California Day
Starland Vocal Band
1976
The California promise: To ditch stress "big time," break out the windchimes.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: The weather.
Lyrics: "California day, California weather. Take the clouds away, I'll feel a whole lot better. California day. There's nothing like the sunshine to get me out of doors..."
2) Back to California
Carole King
1971
The California promise: No offense Georgia, but West Coast longing is powerful stuff.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: It preserves sanity.
Lyrics: "I've got to make it home somehow before I lose my mind. So won't you carry me back to California? I've been on the road too long..."
3) California Nights
Lesley Gore
1967
The California promise: Dive into the ocean and fall in love watching the stars.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: The Pacific.
Lyrics: "Whoa, California nights, when I'm walking with you, hand in hand by the shore. Yes, I love California nights, at the beach where we swim with the tide rolling in..."
4) California Soul
The Fifth Dimension
1968
The California promise: Pat your feet. Don't worry about "how the surf gave birth," just try some "brand new thinking."
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: The groove.
Lyrics: "It's all in the the air, you hear it everywhere, no matter what you do, it's going to get a hold on you: California soul, California soul. They say the sun comes up every morning, and if you listen carefully, the winds that ride on the high time whistle in melody..."
5) San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)
Scott McKenzie
1967
The California promise: Who needs a hat? Grab some flowers and get in motion.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: The love.
Lyrics: "For those who come to San Francisco, summertime will be a love-in there, in the streets of San Francisco, gentle people with flowers in their hair..."
6) Do You Know the Way to San Jose
Dionne Warwick
1968
The California promise: LA is a great big freeway ... (As is San Jose, now.)
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: Hometown friends.
Lyrics: "Fame and fortune is a magnet, it can pull you far away from home. With a dream a heart you're never alone. Dreams turn into dust and blow away, and there you are..."
7) California
Georgia Prophets
1970
The California promise: Getting back to California will just mean everything to you.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: Everything. Got it?
Lyrics: "California is calling me. California is where I should be."
8) California
Joni Mitchell
1971
The California promise: When Spain and Greece can't compare.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: It's home.
Lyrics: "Still a lot of lands to see, but I wouldn't want to stay here, it's too old and cold and settled in its ways. Oh, but California, California I'm coming home."
9) Hotel California
Eagles
1976
The California promise: The dream's more complicated than it seems at first glance.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: The excess.
Lyrics: "I heard the mission bell and I was thinking to myself, this could be heaven or this could be hell."
10) Going to California
Led Zeppelin
1971
The California promise: Come to search, come to start over.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: Dreams.
Lyrics: "Made up my mind to make a new start, going to California with an aching in my heart. Someone told me there's a girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair."
11) California Dreamin
The Mamas and the Papas
1965
The California promise: Safety and warmth.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: Los Angeles.
Lyrics: "I'd be safe and warm if I was in LA, California dreamin on such a winter's day."
12) California
The Beach Boys
1973
The promise: Morro Bay to Salinas to Big Sur ... There's more to explore than will fit in a song. And it's all bright and clean.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: Roadtrips. (And John Steinbeck, apparently.)
Lyrics: "Have you ever walked down through the sycamores where the farmhouse used to be? There the monarch's autumn journey ends on windswept cypress trees."
13) California Girls
The Beach Boys
1965
The California promise: Tans and bikinis.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: The girls.
Lyrics: "I been all around this great big world and I seen all kind of girls, but I couldn't wait to get back in the states, back to the cutest girls in the word. I wish they all could be California girls..."
14) The Little Old Lady From Pasadena
Jan and Dean
1964
The California Promise: You must learn to drive. Even the grannies will cut you off.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: Car culture.
Lyrics: "Parked in a old rickety old garage is a brand-new, shiny red super stock Dodge. And everybody's saying that there's nobody meaner than the little old lady from Pasadena."
15) Talk to Me of Mendocino
Kate and Anna McGarrigle
1975
The California Promise: It's better than New York, and it's better than South Bend.
What's worth singing about in the Golden State: Redwoods
Lyrics: "Let the sun set on the ocean, I will watch it from the shore. Let the sun rise over the redwoods, I'll rise with it till I rise no more."
Read More By E. A. Wright
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- Best Long Distance Relationship Songs
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California Favorites
What's the best classic California song?
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Comments
Very well done. I love the way you set up this hub -- made your song selections more powerful.
Gotta vote for "I left my heart in San Francisco" by Tony Bennet as my personal fave.
And hey -- for a New Yorker, you sure do know your Golden State tunes! MM
EA, I love the way you take photos! They are absolutely fantastic. This hub is so good because you have given a run down of each song. It gives me an idea for a hub which I wrote about Gershwin and put up a selection of songs. I should give a brief for each as well. Hope you can visit the hub and give me some advice. Well done. My fav is Hotel California and Do You Know The Way To San Jose. I also like Carole King's music. It reminds me of my childhood in the 70s. Instead of the Beatles, I kinda grew up listening to the Carpenters and their songs still bring a tear to my eye whenever I listen to them. Thanks so much for sharing!
The San Francisco song got my vote and was my favorite. I still know the words today - and for no particular reason may start singing it! It had so much meaning.
Thanks for this fun hub!
Nice job , all great songs by great artist .13,11,10 and number 5 are on my IPOD
Ah, California! Great list of songs, many of them get stuck in my head when I drive there every year to run in the Big Sur Marathon.
Love it, E.A. Wright. I chose "San Francisco," just because it just fits like a glove. Being a huge Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, I would've chose, "Under The Bridge," but that song is a bit more recent! Great job on writing this! Us New Yorkers don't have such a nice spread of music as does Cali. Oh well. Thank you for this!
The Red Hot Chili Peppers certainly can't be ignored when it comes to California music, and I'm sure the group's songs will make many "Classic California" lists in years to come.
For now, you'll find the Red Hot Chili Peppers earned a place among my picks for the best songs about California's un-sunny side. Check out California Dystopia. (Though, dohn121, looks like you already have. Thanks!)
Aqua says:
4 months ago
Great idea for a hub! I wanted to vote for both California Dreamin AND San Francisco - it was a tough choice :-)