Dani California

Origins and character

Throughout the song, lyricist Anthony Kiedis laments the early death of Dani, a poor, young Southern girl who eventually lived in California, became a mother and lived a hard, fast, unsettled life. Kiedis has commented that the character of Dani is composite of all the women with whom he has had relationships. The song narrates much of Dani's life, starting with her birth in Mississippi and apparently culminating with her death in the badlands, by a man "gunnin'" from North Dakota, while en route to Minnesota.

Dani first appeared in the 1999 song "Californication", which includes the lyrics "Teenage bride with a baby inside/Gettin' high on information" although the girl's name is not specified. She was next mentioned in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 2002 single "By the Way" as "Dani the girl". Kiedis commented: "When this funky groove came up it struck me as a perfect place to actually tell a story. It sort of revealed itself to me that it's been the same character, just kind of developing. At first I didn't realize that I was writing about the same girl."

Guitarist John Frusciante used various instruments and effects devices in order to achieve the textures and treatments used throughout the song, including Mellotron, Moog effect pedals, and a Doepfer modular synthesizer, used for the filtering and processing of pre-recorded tracks. Although it is sometimes low in the mix, the main riff, (which is heard primarily in the first verse) plays throughout as an underlying tone. The one-minute guitar solo at the end of the song is an adaption of Jimi Hendrix's intro to "Purple Haze", with the effects kept very close to the original.

The working title of the song was "Wu-Tang" because Smith's drums sounded similar to those on the Wu-Tang Clan's debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), though they ended up a bit more like Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama".

Reception

Shortly after its release, the originality of the song was questioned on the Dan Gaffney Morning Show on Delaware based news/talk radio station WGMD 92.7 FM. Two of the station's talk show hosts, Dan Gaffney and Jared Morris, alleged that the Red Hot Chili Peppers had plagiarized Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' 1993 hit "Mary Jane's Last Dance". To demonstrate, they presented audio snippets of both songs, both side by side and simultaneously (i.e. on top of each other) several times. They stated that the chord progression, key, and the lyrical theme of the songs (both produced by Rick Rubin) showed "startling similarities" and urged listeners to "decide for themselves."

Although the chord progressions sound similar, they do in fact differ as "Mary Jane's Last Dance" follows "Am, G, D, Am" (A Dorian mode), while "Dani California" follows "Am, G, Dm, Am" (A minor). University of Chicago musicologist Travis Jackson said the songs' chord progressions were similar, but were a "pretty standard groove" in music and not necessarily evidence of copying. Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" even bears a strong resemblance to "Waiting for the Sun", a song by The Jayhawks from their 1992 album, Hollywood Town Hall. Both Petty and the Jayhawks song feature Benmont Tench, a member of Tom Petty's backing band, The Heartbreakers. The Jayhawks were even an opening act for Petty in 1992.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Petty denied rumors that he planned to sue the Chili Peppers and said, "I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock & roll songs sound alike." Petty went on to say that he was amused when The Strokes openly admitted that they took the riff for "American Girl" and used it in their song "Last Nite".

Dani California debuted at number 24 and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 (remaining for two weeks at that position) and it's the 2nd song to debut at number 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart after R.E.M. in 1994 and before Linkin Park in 2007, remaining at the location for 14 weeks. The song also managed to achieve digital sales of 28,000 units in its first week of availability, which was good for number 16 on the Hot Digital Songs chart. In the UK, the song fared even better, finding itself at the number 2 spot for one week, and eventually remaining on that chart for over 15 weeks. It also stayed 12 weeks at number 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song also became a cross-over hit to pop and adult contemporary radio peaking number 5 on the Adult Top 40 chart, their 1st Top 5 and Top 10 single on the chart beating Scar Tissue at #11. The song also hit number 25 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart.

The song is among the few tracks the Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded which have broken the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a success, with "Dani California" accumulating over 500 weeks collectively on over 20 charts.

The song is offered as a playable track in Rock Band and is exportable to Rock Band 2 but not in any future versions of the Rock Band series. On November 8 a patch made the song playable in Rock Band 3. The song is used in the two Japanese live-action films, Death Note and Death Note 2: The Last Name, both directed by Shūsuke Kaneko. In addition, "Dani California" was used in the promo for the fourth season of Sons of Anarchy and as a NASCAR AD for All Star Weekend in 2006.

Music video

The music video for "Dani California" premiered on MTV on April 4, 2006. Directed by Tony Kaye, director of American History X (who was only accepted after initial choice Mark Romanek declined), the video is a quasi-chronology of the evolution of rock music; the band performs the song on a stage, but in a variety of outfits representing important figures and movements in the history of rock, with band members have transformed to famous musicians.

Flea affirmed that "[The band] mainly did eras, not actual people: rockabilly, British Invasion, psychedelia, funk, glam, punk, goth, hair metal, grunge, and ourselves being the sum of all those parts." While the band's appearance was intentionally generic in each scene, obvious nods were made to certain specific artists, including Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Parliament-Funkadelic (as Flea was dressed like Bootsy Collins), David Bowie (as Flea was dressed like Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust persona), Slade, Sex Pistols, The Misfits' Glenn Danzig, Poison, Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers themselves. The video finishes with the Red Hot Chili Peppers as themselves, occasionally flashing back to the imitated transformed artists featured earlier in the film.

The video received ten nominations at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards; it won the award for Best Art Direction, failing to win its six other nominations for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best Rock Video, Best Direction, Best Editing and Best Cinematography. The video was also nominated for an MMVA for best international video.

Live performances

The song has been the band's most performed from the album with over 330 performances as of 2017.

Track listing

1. "Dani California" – 4:44
2. "Million Miles of Water" – 4:06

1. "Dani California" – 4:44
2. "Whatever We Want" – 4:48
3. "Lately" – 2:55

1. "Dani California" – 4:44
2. "Whatever We Want" – 4:48

1. "Dani California" – 4:44

1. "Dani California" – 4:44

1. "Dani California" – 4:44
2. "Whatever We Want" – 4:47
3. "Lately" – 2:55
4. "Million Miles of Water" – 4:05