Dani California

"Dani California"
Song

"Dani California" is a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the first single from their ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium. It will be released on May 2, 2006 as a single, with the album scheduled for a release one week later; it is already available on iTunes. On April 9, 2006 "Dani California" reached third place on iTunes' "Today's Top Songs".

The international radio premiere was April 3, 2006. On this day, Don Jantzen from Houston KTBZ-FM played "Dani California" non-stop for his entire three hour show, from 4pm-7pm CST. This decision drew a mostly-positive reaction from listeners, with several people calling in encouraging the DJ to keep playing the song.

The single became the fastest-growing on alternative rock radio so far in 2006, achieving 2880 plays between 3 April and 9 April, 2006. It debuted on the Modern Rock Tracks chart at number one — a rare feat, also entering the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart at number two and the Heritage Rock chart at number four. This is the first time that a song has premiered in the top five on all three charts [1]. In addition, the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number twenty-four. In its second chart week, it jumped to number nine, becoming the band's third U.S. top-ten pop hit.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have released a photo of the front cover of the "Dani California" single on their official website, and the band played an acoustic version of the song at a concert for The Silverlake Conservatory of Music.

"Dani California" will also be the theme song for the Japanese movie Death Note, based on the manga series of the same name. The song was skewered by Pitchfork Media, which gave it just one star out of five, saying that the song had "barre-chord blandness and 12-step solos" that revealed "a band just as desperate to survive as their song's main character."

Music Video

On March 27, 2006, the Chili Peppers announced that on April 4, the video premiere of "Dani California" would take place at 11PM (EST) on MTV. The music video for the song was directed by Tony Kaye, the acclaimed director of American History X. A thirty-second teaser video would also be available the prior week, but the video leaked into the internet through VH1, and is currently being hosted on many websites online.

The video features a chronological series of parodies of historically important rock bands or artists that specifically influenced the Chili Peppers. As if by design, a flurry of discussion and debate ensued on the Web, about exactly who is caricatured and whether certain segments are composites.

The Bands or People who are referenced in the video are as follows:

• Elvis Presley
• The Beatles
• Jimi Hendrix with Cream
• Parliament-Funkadelic
• David Bowie with Gary Glitter
• Iggy Pop and the Stooges
• The Misfits
• Poison
• Nirvana

Some of the artists that are not parodied in the video, but are commonly mistaken for those above are Prince (who is often mistaken to be in the place of Hendrix), Buddy Holly and The Monkees (mistaken to be in the place of the Beatles), T Rex., The Sex Pistols (mistaken to be in the place of the Iggy Pop), Kiss (mistaken to be in the place of the Misfits), Aerosmith and Motley Crue (mistaken to be in the place of the Poison).

The video enters the final stretch with the Chili Peppers as themselves playing beneath a huge RHCP logo. The song builds to a climax on a long John Frusciante guitar solo, interspaced with flashbacks to previous scenes.

Dani's Story

Main article: Dani (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

In "Dani California", lyricist Anthony Kiedis continues the character of "Dani, the girl" from the 2002 single "By the Way", and she is also mentioned as the "teenage bride with a baby inside" on 1999's single "Californication", though was never referred to by name.

Kiedis has mentioned previously that the character of Dani California represents all the women he has ever dated. Kiedis said "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 its been the same character, just kind of developing. At first I didn't realize that I was writing about the same girl."

There is a video clip of Red Hot Chili Peppers band members discussing Dani California and who she is, available on their official website.

Track Listing

CD single #1:

1. "Dani California" (Album Version)
2. "Whatever We Want" (Non-Album Track)
3. "Lately" (Non-Album Track).

CD single #2:

1. "Dani California" (Album Version)
2. "Million Miles Of Water" (Non-Album Track)

External links

• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Official Site
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - MySpace Page
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Street Team
• Stadium-Arcadium.com Unofficial Fansite - http://www.stadium-arcadium.com
• Stadium Arcadium Revealed - [2]
• Video Interview with RHCP talking about Dani California - [3]
• Full Length Streamed Track - [4]
• Full Length Streamed Video - [5]