Cultural Impact
In addition to reaching #3 in the US, other countries where the song was highly popular include Canada (#2 in RPMs national chart), Rhodesia (also #2), and Sweden (#6). It peaked at #8 in Australia, and in South Africa it made one of the Beach Boys' best-ever international showings, staying six weeks at No. 1. Radio plays of the song in the United States alone are said to total between four and five million to date, thus making it the Beach Boys' biggest royalty earner.
The song has been prominently referenced by other artists on more than one occasion. Most notably, the Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R." is considered a homage to the song. Strawberry Alarm Clock, which toured with the Beach Boys in 1966–67, segues into the intro and first line of the song 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.
Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1965 album Chipmunks à Go-Go.
A 1980s series of adverts for the former airline British Caledonian were another notable homage to the song, twisting the lines about California to become "I wish they all could all be Caledonian", in reference to the airline's flight attendants.
On her 2005 album, All Jacked Up, Gretchen Wilson (no relation to the Wilson brothers) performs a song composed with John Rich entitled "California Girls". Her song, an original composition rather than a cover of the Beach Boys original, is instead a country-styled retort to Beach Boys song, featuring a chorus that asks, "ain't you glad we ain't all California girls?"
In Brian Wilson's 1998 concert Live at the Roxy, he referred to "California Girls" as the theme song of The Beach Boys.
Ricky Martin sang a cover version on An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson.
The song has been also heard in the pre-title sequence of the James Bond movie (starring Roger Moore), A View to a Kill in 1985, when Bond skis to escape from enemies in Siberia (although the scenes were filmed in Iceland). This version was performed by Gidea Park, led by Adrian Baker.
This song can be heard at the beginning of Rush Hour 2, where main characters Lee (played by Jackie Chan) and Carter (played by Chris Tucker) sing along to the song as it plays on the radio. In Rush Hour 3, Lee uses it as his ringtone when Carter calls him at the beginning, and later on in the movie a French performer sings the song on the street where Carter is eating dinner.
Principal Belding from Saved by the Bell tells Zack Morris that it is his all time favorite song and walks off screen, humming the tune.
The song was sampled by rapper Tyga in his demo song titled "California Girls".
In 2004, the song was covered for a Cotton commercial featuring mannequins.
The song was parodied by The Barron Knights.
The song was a very strong inspiration for Katy Perry's hit 2010 song "California Gurls". Katy's song initiated controversy 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 Katy Perry's version towards the end of the song. The Beach Boys' informed Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg that they will sue them both for violating their copyright if they do not modify the song to a non-infringing state prior to commercial availability, and Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg complied. Additionally, notice the intentional misspelling of the word "girls". Although the reason for this was because of the request of Katy's manager to make the song compatible with the 70s hit "September Gurls" by Big Star, which does not have any specific reference to the State of California or its people anywhere in its lyrics, this would have been another form of copyright infringement had the word "girls" been spelled correctly.
Read more about this topic: California Girls
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