"Californication" is a song by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers from their seventh album, Californication (1999). Released as a single in June 2000, it reached number 69 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, and number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts. It was the third number-one Californication single in Iceland.
In Kiedis's book, Scar Tissue, the author reveals that the band had enormous difficulty in putting the song together. Kiedis had written the lyrics, which he felt were some of the best he had written, but the band could not decide how the song should sound musically.
As they struggled with the song it seemed like they would not be able to finish it in time to include it on the album, until one day Frusciante walked into the studio and exclaimed that he had "figured it out." He played the song as he visualised it, and it went from being a song that could have been an afterthought to becoming one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' greatest hits, similar to the way "Under the Bridge" was conceived.
In Rick Rubin's podcast "Broken Record", Chad Smith revealed that for quite some time, the song was "like reggae, like Bad Brigade" and "that the melody was there, but the music...." After a while, everybody thought it was not coming together and the song was nearly thrown out before John came in with a new arrangement.
Comments