"California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and the Papas

Among my favourite songs by The Mamas and the Papas is "California Dreamin'." The song was written by John and Michelle Phillips in 1963 when they were still living in New York City and John Phillips was a member of the folk trio The Journeymen. The inspiration for the song came from the winter of 1963 in New York City, which was a particularly cold and brutal one. Michelle Phillips, who was born in Long Beach, California and had spent much of her life in the Los Angeles area, particularly missed California. The song, in which an individual finds himself longing for LA during a particularly bitter winter back East, is then to a degree autobiographical.

I have only been to Los Angeles once, but those few days I spent there are enough to make me miss the city at times. It is for that reason I do identify with the song to a degree. That having been said, it comes to my the most not in the winter, but instead in the summer. I tend to miss the somewhat drier, milder summer in Los Angeles when it is overly hot and muggy here! Of course, this means I have to change the lyrics to "California Dreamin'" a bit in my head when I listen to it in the summer.

Without further ado, here are The Mamas and the Papas with "California Dreamin'."