California Girls

The Beach Boys released "California Girls" in 65.  Two decades later, David Lee Roth covered it.  The original is one of my favorite Beach Boys songs, and one of my favorite songs from the first half of the 60's.  I wish I had lived through that first half, especially in California.  But until I can time travel, the closest I'll get to those years are movies such as the first four Bond films, TV shows such as Bewitched (the black and white seasons, anyway), and songs such as this one.  When I'm listening to the original, I'm sitting on a pristine, not overcrowded beach in Southern California, enjoying the view -- and I don't mean the ocean.

David Lee Roth covered this for his first solo single.  While I'm not the hugest Van Halen fan, he was better (as was the band) when he was their lead singer.  He needed a band to reign in his excesses. This song, however, unlike the video, is not as over the top (especially by David Lee Roth standards) as it could have been; maybe it should have been. Instead, it comes across as a more of a cheap knock-off than a cover.  When I'm listening to it, I'm on a seedy boardwalk rather than a beach -- and if I am on the beach, there are hypodermics on the shore -- and the girls I see look as fake as the song sounds.

Although not a cover, "California Gurls" by Katy Perry, the ultimate California girl, honors the original more than Roth's version.

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