Songoftheday 1/14/14 - Well East coast girls are hip I really dig those styles they wear, and the Southern girls with the way they talk they knock me out when I'm down there...

David Lee Roth - "California Girls"
from the EP Crazy From The Heat (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's Song of the Day is by rock singer David Lee Roth, who by the close of 1984 had enjoyed the biggest success on the band he sang lead for's career so far as Van Halen's 1984 put three songs in the pop top-40, and scored a #1 single with "Jump". However, David wasn't quite pleased with the direction the music of the band was going, was bandmate Eddie Van Halen experimenting with darker, more thoughtful soundscapes with synths taking equal billing with guitars, while Roth was perfectly fine with the frat-boy party rock he reveled in. At the beginning of the next year, Roth released his first solo effort, a four-song EP of cover songs of various styles, but most importantly non-heavy metal songs. The first single pulled from Crazy From The Heat was a cover of the Beach Boys classic "California Girls", which went to #3 in 1965...

Roth didn't stray much from the original (Beach Boy Carl Wilson and Christopher Cross sang backup), even proving more "pop" oriented than Van Halen's work. Perhaps Roth was hinting he was the Mike Love to Eddie's Brian Wilson?

Anyway, of course there had to be an over-the-top video ready for MTV, and he didn't disappoint...

David's "California Girls" matched the Beach Boys' peak on the American pop chart in March of 1985, while reaching the same rank on the rock radio list, and even popping in at #29 on the adult contemporary (or "easy-listening") format. Internationally, the single made the top 10 in Canada (#10), Australia (#6) and New Zealand (#7), while across the pond in England it sputtered out at #68.

Up tomorrow: Midwestern rockers aren't able to resist their emotions.