{"id":750878,"date":"2026-07-08T17:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/750878\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:07:11","slug":"5-songs-from-the-1960s-that-made-you-want-to-live-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/750878\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Songs From the 1960s That Made You Want To Live in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

California has long been heralded as the mecca for all things cultural, cool, and sunshiney\u2014a runoff from manifest destiny that has dominated mainstream pop music since the 1950s. The following decade was no different, featuring a wellspring of songs that made anyone who wasn\u2019t living in California wish that they did.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the best.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cCalifornia Dreamin\u2019\u201d by The Mamas & The Papas\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

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

The Mamas & The Papas\u2019 1965 track, \u201cCalifornia Dreamin\u2019\u201d<\/a>, left everyone wishing that they had somewhere warm and sunny they could go to escape the brown leaves and gray skies elsewhere in the country. For music fans stuck in the moody Midwest winter, \u201cCalifornia Dreamin\u2019\u201d offered an irresistible picture of the land of plenty, leaving us wishing for a California home we never really had.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)\u201d by Scott McKenzie<\/p>\n

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

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

Written by Mamas & the Papas\u2019 alum John Phillips, \u201cSan Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)\u201d<\/a>, made famous by Scott McKenzie, practically gave people wistfully dreaming of the West Coast a list of instructions and what to expect when they get there. The 1967 track served as both a soundtrack for an open invitation to the Summer of Love.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d by The Beach Boys<\/p>\n

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

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

For young girls looking for themselves in the lyrics of popular music, \u201cCalifornia Girls\u201d<\/a> by The Beach Boys certainly offered one message loud and clear: California girls are the best girls. Sorry, Midwest farmers\u2019 daughters and Northern girls. Brian Wilson and company wished you were from California. And frankly, everyone else who was listening to the song also wished that about themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia Soul\u201d by The Fifth Dimension<\/p>\n

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

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

Part of what made California so appealing to the rest of the country was the spirit that seemed to run through the West Coast state, and songs like \u201cCalifornia Soul\u201d embodied that attitude with infectious clarity. Everyone who didn\u2019t already live in California wished they could witness this special kind of soul in person. (We\u2019d be remiss if we didn\u2019t also recommend Marlena Shaw\u2019s version<\/a> of this track.)<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia Nights\u201d by Lesley Gore<\/p>\n

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

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

Something about falling in love next to the Pacific Ocean sounds infinitely more romantic than going head over heels in the Rust Belt\u2014at least, that\u2019s what Lesley Gore\u2019s 1967 track, \u201cCalifornia Nights\u201d, would suggest. Indeed, this breezy love song made everyone in the other 49 states wish they could stroll hand in hand with their beaus by the ocean.<\/p>\n

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California has long been heralded as the mecca for all things cultural, cool, and sunshiney\u2014a runoff from manifest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[24911,2356,88,216,17172],"class_list":["post-750878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-california","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-pop-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}