Dani California
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"Dani California" is the first single from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium. The single was first made available at the iTunes Music Store and then was officially released on May 2, 2006. The international radio premiere was April 3, 2006, when Don Jantzen from the Houston radio station KTBZ-FM, played "Dani California" continuously for his entire three hour show.[1]
The single debuted on the The Billboard Hot 100 at number twenty-four and peaked at number six, becoming the band's third single to hit the top-ten on the chart. In addition, "Dani California" became the second song in history to debut at #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, after R.E.M.'s 1994 hit "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", and also charted at #1 on the Mainstream Rock charts.[2] It reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, kept from number one position by Gnarls Barkley's song "Crazy".
In the Billboard review of Stadium Arcadium, which dismissed the album as indulgent, "Dani California" was described as, "One of the things that truly grabs attention upon first listen and worms its way into your subconscious, where it just won't let go, as much of Anthony Kiedis' catchiest melodies do."[3]
"Dani California" has been used as a theme song for the Japanese movie, Death Note.
The song was nominated for three Grammy Awards, one for Best Rock Song, one for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, and one for Best Short Form Music Video, all of which it won except for the last mentioned award nomination.[4]
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[edit] Music video
The music video for "Dani California" premiered on MTV on April 4, 2006. Directed by Tony Kaye, director of American History X, 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 music.
For a while, speculation as to which bands and artists were portrayed was common. However, in the June 2006 issue of UK Classic Rock magazine, Flea was quoted as saying, "We 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". The clip finishes with the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a hardcore punk band imitation (the 3/4 pants, armbands, spinning guitars around their necks and the clichè harcore moshing demonstrating this), with flashbacks to the imitated artists featured earlier in the film. While the band's appearance was intentionally generic in each scene, obvious nods were made to certain specific artists, including Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Bootsy Collins of Parliament/Funkadelic, David Bowie, New York Dolls, The Misfits, The Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, The Cult, Poison, Nirvana, Marilyn Manson and Green Day.[5]
The video received seven nominations at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, but only 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. Yet, recently, it won its nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.
According to Anthony, he wanted Mark Romanek (who had previously worked with them for "Can't Stop") to direct the video, but he turned down the offer, so they got Tony Kaye instead (as heard on the Stadium Arcadium bonus DVD).
[edit] Dani's story
In the song, lyricist Anthony Kiedis laments the early death of Dani California, a poor, young girl from Mississippi who became a bank robber and lived a hard, fast life. A girl by the name of "Dani" also appears in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 2002 single "By the Way", as well as the song "Californication" as it alludes to a "Teenage bride with a baby in side/Gettin' high on information"; although there is no mention of her. Kiedis has explained that the character of Dani California embodies all the women from his past relationships, "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."[6]
[edit] Accusations of plagiarism
Shortly after its release, the originality of the song was questioned in the Dan Gaffney Morning Show of Delaware based radio station WGMD 92.7.[7] The presenters alleged that the 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. (The two songs are compared here [3].) They stated that the chord progression, key, tempo, and the lyrical theme of the songs (both produced by Rick Rubin) showed "startling similarities" and urged listeners to "decide for themselves".
Some have dismissed this as a publicity stunt by the DJs. Posters on the official Chili Peppers message board have pointed out that they sped up "Mary Jane's Last Dance" to more closely match the tempo of Dani California. It's also been pointed out that while the first 8 bars of both songs sound similar, the chords are not exactly the same, with "Mary Jane's Last Dance" being "Am, G, D, Am" (A Dorian) and "Dani California" being "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.[8] Additionally, while the accused chord progression is used for the majority of the first verse, it remains silent in the two subsequent verses.
Spin magazine readers voted in a June 2006 poll on the similarities of the songs: "We asked if you thought the Chili Peppers ripped off Tom Petty for their new single. As of press time, 49 percent felt the Chili Peppers' "Dani California" takes "certain musical elements" from Tom Petty's 1993 hit, "Mary Jane's Last Dance", while 46 percent said "Dani" was totally original. An on-the-fence five percent of readers weren't quite sure." Spin also posted an audio comparison of the two tracks.[9]
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 also went on to say that The Strokes admitted that they took Tom Petty's riff for "American Girl" and used it in their song "Last Nite".[10].
[edit] Track listing
[edit] CD single #1:
- "Dani California" – 4:42
- "Million Miles of Water" – 4:06
[edit] CD single #2:
- "Dani California" – 4:40
- "Whatever We Want" – 4:48
- "Lately" – 2:56
[edit] 7" Picture disc single
- "Dani California"
- "Whatever We Want"
[edit] Chart performance
| Chart (2006) | Peak position[11] |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 6 |
| Argentina Top 40 Singles | 1 [12] |
| Peru Top 100[13] | 12 |
| French Singles Chart | 57 |
| Dutch Top 40 | 8 |
| UK Singles Chart | 2 |
| German Singles Chart | 12 |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 8 |
| Australian Top 40 Digital Tracks Chart | 2 |
| New Zealand Chart | 7 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 4 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 7 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 7 |
| Belgian Singles Chart | 9 |
| Latvian Airplay Top | 2 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 2 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 5 |
| Chilean Airplay Top 100 | 4 |
| Italian Single Chart | 4 |
| Israeli Single Chart | 8 |
| Modern Rock Tracks | 1 |
[edit] Notes
- ^ News, Red Hot Chili Peppers official fan site, April 3, 2006, http://www.billboard.com
- ^ Red Hot Chili Peppers - Singles, Billboard.com, http://www.billboard.com
- ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Stadium Arcadium - Album Review, Billboard.com, http://www.billboard.com
- ^ 49th Annual Grammy Awards Nominee List, Grammy.com, http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/49th_Show/list.aspx
- ^ Michaels, Mitch. Ask 411 Music 05.19.06: The Self-Service Edition, Ask 411 Music, 411mania.com. Retrieved February 16, 2007.
- ^ Stadium Arcadium; Bonus Disk, Special Features
- ^ A Petty Case of Plagiarism, WGMD Radio News, http://www.wgmd.com/newspost/fullnews.php?id=1142
- ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10481746/latest_news_petty_vs_chili_peppers_townshend_explains_song_and_more
- ^ audio sample
- ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2006/06/28/tom-petty-to-chili-peppers-were-cool/
- ^ Red Hot Chili Peppers' Dani California: Chart Positions. Retrieved on May 30, 2006.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
| Preceded by "World Wide Suicide" by Pearl Jam |
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single April 22, 2006 |
Succeeded by "Steady, As She Goes" by The Raconteurs |
