California Girls

The music came from Brian Wilson's first psychedelic experience.[7][8][9] He was quoted saying in 1986, "[The song was] something I'm very proud of in a sense because it represents the Beach Boys really greatest record production we’ve ever made. It goes back to 1965 when I was sitting in my apartment, wondering how to write a song about girls, because I love girls. I mean, everybody loves girls."[10] He added in 2007, "I was thinking about the music from cowboy movies. And I sat down and started playing it, bum-buhdeeda, bum-buhdeeda. I did that for about an hour. I got these chords going. Then I got this melody, it came pretty fast after that."[8] Inspiration came from the rhythm of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring".[9] In 2015, he explained: "'California Girls' had that beat — it's called a shuffle beat — and that's definitely a Bach influence."[11]

The next day, Wilson and Mike Love finished off the remainder of the song.[8] Love said that he wrote "every syllable" of the song apart from "I wish they all could be California girls".[12] He was not originally listed as the song's co-writer, but his successful 1992 lawsuit for songwriting credits amended the alleged omission.[9] Bassist Carol Kaye credits almost every note to Wilson, with the only exception being a fill she invented at the end of the bridge section.[9]

"California Girls" begins with an orchestral prelude which biographer Peter Ames Carlin called "as spare and stirring as anything by Aaron Copland".[13] It was advised against by Brian's father, Murry Wilson, who felt it made the song excessively complex.[14] Music theorist Daniel Harrison compared the song to a later Brian Wilson composition, "God Only Knows", as it both avoids a root-position tonic and suppresses a cadential drive.[15]

Author Maury Dean writes: "Musically, 'California Girls' is an adventure in chromatics; any garage band trying to follow their bizarre ♭VII tidal wave of dipping and swooping chromatic major chords will have to buy the sheet music, or hire Sherlock Holmes to find the missing chords."[16] Musicologist Walter Everett identifies the use of ♭VII — IV in the chorus to suggest a chromaticized major key with minor pentatonic inflections.[17] The refrain alternates between the I and ii7 without ever meeting the expected V. During this, the relationship between the music and text is reflected in the lyric "I wish they all could be California girls", which is also never fulfilled to the narrator.[18]

The track was produced by Wilson, who intended to encapsulate the feel of the Drifters' version of "On Broadway".[8] The instrumental was made on April 6, 1965 at United Western Recorders, requiring 44 takes before Wilson could deem a satisfactory performance.[19] Problems had arisen from the tempo and guitar part in the introduction, which fatigued Wilson, engineer Chuck Britz, and the dozen-plus session players.[9] The song did not appear to have lyrics or a title at this juncture, and Wilson can be heard calling the song "Oh Yeah" and "You're Grass and I'm a Power Mower".[9] Wilson remembers: "When we got into the studio with Chuck, he said that he wanted Carl’s twelve-string guitar in the intro to sound more direct. I didn’t know what that meant. 'Can he play it in the booth?' Chuck said. I had never thought about that before, but it seemed like a good idea. Carl was standing next to me in the booth and all the other musicians were out in the studio. I conducted it like an orchestra."[20]

Vocal overdubs followed two months later on June 4 at CBS Columbia Square.[19] Wilson recorded the Beach Boys' vocals using Columbia's new 8-track recorder, allowing Love's lead vocals to be triple-tracked and the group's vocals spread over three more.[9] "California Girls" was the first Beach Boys recording to feature vocals from Bruce Johnston,[9] who had joined the group to substitute for Wilson on concert tours. Bruce's vocals can be heard at the end of the song.

The Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R." (1968) features a bridge section based on the song.[22] Strawberry Alarm Clock, who toured with the Beach Boys in 1966–67, segues into the intro and first line of "California Girls" at the end of their song "Small Package", on their fourth and final album, Good Morning Starshine (1969). This fadeout was keyboardist Mark Weitz's idea.[23] The title also became the reference point for two other identically named songs by Gretchen Wilson and the Magnetic Fields.[9]

The song was a strong inspiration for Katy Perry's 2010 single "California Gurls". Perry's song initiated a dispute with publisher Rondor Music about its use of the lyric "I wish they all could be California girls"; this lyric was used as the chorus for the Beach Boys' song, but was also featured in Perry's version towards the end of the song. Additionally, the word "girls" was intentionally misspelled. Perry's manager requested that the song name be compatible with the 1970s song "September Gurls" by Big Star.[24][25]

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics