{"id":546597,"date":"2026-07-12T23:56:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546597\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T23:56:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:56:05","slug":"61-years-ago-today-the-beach-boys-released-the-song-that-would-inspire-generations-of-tunes-about-the-golden-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546597\/","title":{"rendered":"61 Years Ago Today, the Beach Boys Released the Song That Would Inspire Generations of Tunes About the Golden State"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 1950s and \u201960s ushered in the \u201cCalifornia-cation\u201d<\/a> of pop music, with bright, optimistic tunes like the Mamas and the Papas\u2019 \u201cCalifornia Dreamin\u2019\u201d ruling the airwaves. Perhaps none made a larger cultural imprint than the Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d, released on this day (July 12) in 1965. Hailed by lead singer Brian Wilson as a \u201chymn of youth\u201d, the song extols the virtues of the Golden State\u2019s girls and asserts their superiority to ladies from quite literally anywhere else. Climbing to number three on the all-genre U.S. Billboard Hot 100, \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d ranks among the Beach Boys\u2019 most successful songs worldwide.<\/p>\n

How an LSD Trip Inspired This Beach Boys Smash Hit<\/p>\n

According to official Beach Boys lore, the concept for \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d came to Brian Wilson during his first-ever LSD trip.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

Inspired by the music from cowboy films that were prevalent onscreen at the time, Wilson sat down at his piano and \u201cstarted playing it, bum-buhdeeda, bum-buhdeeda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI did that for about an hour,\u201d he told the Los Angeles Times<\/a> in 2007. \u201cI got these chords going. Then I got this melody, it came pretty fast after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

The next day, Wilson finished \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d with his co-founder and cousin, Mike Love. In April 1965, he recorded the backing track with a slew of session musicians at Hollywood\u2019s Western Studio.<\/p>\n

They needed 44 takes before Wilson was satisfied, and the session carried on well after midnight.<\/p>\n

Additionally, \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d was the first Beach Boys track to feature vocals from Bruce Johnston, who joined the band in April 1965 to substitute for Wilson on concert tours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came home from The Beach Boys\u2019 tour [on June 1] and they said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you come and sing on our next album?\u2019\u201d Johnston recalled, according to a 2004 biography of the band written by Keith Badman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first song I sang on was \u2018California Girls\u2019. At this point I still wasn\u2019t a proper member of the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wave of California Songs That Came After<\/p>\n

Debuting at number 28 on the Billboard Top 40, \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d quickly climbed the charts. By the end of August, it had reached number three, trailing only the Beatles\u2019 \u201cHelp!\u201d and Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cLike a Rolling Stone\u201d. (Name a stronger top three; we\u2019ll wait.)<\/p>\n

Three years later, the Beatles would record \u201cBack in the U.S.S.R.\u201d, which parodied both Chuck Berry\u2019s \u201cBack in the U.S.A.\u201d and the Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d. (Wilson found it \u201creally adorable\u201d at first, before someone pointed out to him that it was poking fun at their song.)<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Behind the Doomed \u201cMillion Dollar Tour\u201d That Saw The Beach Boys Flounder as Social and Political Turmoil Took Over the US]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d would go on to inspire scores of songs with the same title, including recordings by Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg.<\/p>\n

In 1984, Van Halen\u2019s David Lee Roth recorded a cover of \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d that also peaked at number three.<\/p>\n

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 1950s and \u201960s ushered in the \u201cCalifornia-cation\u201d of pop music, with bright, optimistic tunes like the Mamas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[11205,93,61,60,278,7492,90986],"class_list":["post-546597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-pop-music","tag-the-beach-boys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}