Better yet, straight from the source:
Joe Jack Says: September 7th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
I sometimes play Punk Rock Girl at my solo shows too and people have come up to me afterwards to tell me that California Dreamin is not a Beach Boys song.
But.. it is!
Look here:
http://www.lyrics007.com/Beach%20Boys%20Lyrics/Californian%20Dreamin%20Lyrics.htmlI know that it is originally a Mamas and Papas song, but at the time that I wrote them, the Beach Boys had just had a top 40-ish (now forgotten) hit with their cover of the song. (This was the mid-80s.) It was in juke boxes (the Beach Boys version) and on the radio. I heard the Beach Boys version quite a lot on the radio, in fact, in the blue hospital ambulance van during the Eat Your Paisley-era tours.
I don?t understand why people get so worked up about this. Don?t people say that ?Ring of Fire? is a Johnny Cash song, even though June Carter wrote it with Merle Kilgard (and also recorded it, later)? (June Carter?s sister, Anita, was the first to record the song.)
Yes, I know. The Mamas and the Papas recorded the ultimate version of ?California Dreamin?? and it will always be considered their song, and not the Beach Boys?.
Basically, The Beach Boys name fit better in the lyrics and I wanted to quote ?On such a winter?s day? in the lyric? plus, The Beach Boys version was the MODERN one and more likely to have been playing in a jukebox (then, not now).
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Everybody feel better now?
I can't tell you how happy I am that my 11,000th post was debunking the Dead Milkmen issue...