"California" is a song by American rock band

Phantom Planet Phantom Planet is an American Rock music, rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1994. The band consists of Alex Greenwald (vocals, rhythm guitar), Darren Robinson (lead guitar), Sam Farrar (bass guitar) and Jeff Conrad (drums). The band is bes ...

. It was released as a single from their second album '' The Guest'' in 2002. The song is about driving on

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a major north–south highway that traverses the states of California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast of the United States. It is part of the United States Numbered Highway Syst ...

, traveling to see a concert. Both the song and the band received major attention when it became the theme song on the Fox television show '' The O.C.'', and it soon became a top-10 hit in Austria, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Song information

The estates of

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson, ; May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-born American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. Self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," Jolson was one of the United States' most famous and ...

and his songwriting team are co-credited for "California", presumably because the title and chorus bear strong resemblances to his own " California, Here I Come". Some websites refer to the Phantom Planet song as a cover of the Jolson tune. Some parts of the song, particularly the piano solos at the beginning and end, are similar to the Jolson song, but still contain several differences in melody. It also bears some thematic and melodic resemblance to

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

's "California" from her 1971 album ''

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

''. The song was re-recorded in 2005 by Phantom Planet and re-released as "California 2005", a much mellower version of the song than the original. "California 2005" had its debut in the second episode of ''The O.C.s third season, and is featured on ''Music from the OC: MX-5''. Although normally this version of the song runs as the title song for ''The O.C.'', it was switched out for the Mates of State's cover version in a special episode where everything in the show took place in alternate universe, hence a different song for the title sequence.

Track listings

EP Single

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Cover versions

The song was covered in 2006 – again for ''The O.C.'', this time being covered by Mates of State for the sixth installment of the ''Music from the OC'' series. Canadian rapper k-os sampled the song on a track called "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman", from his album '' Yes!''.

Alvin and the Chipmunks Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks and billed for their first two decades as the Chipmunks, are an American animated virtual band and media franchise first created by Ross Bagdasarian for Novelty records in ...

covered the song for their 2007 video game ''

''. In 2017, Lisa Mitchell covered the song for her '' When They Play That Song'' EP.

References

{{Authority control 2002 songs 2002 singles Phantom Planet songs The O.C. Songs about California Music videos directed by Roman Coppola Song recordings produced by Mark Ronson Songs written by Al Jolson Song recordings produced by Tchad Blake Song recordings produced by Mitchell Froom Songs with lyrics by Buddy DeSylva Television drama theme songs Daylight Records singles Epic Records singles