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(Warner Bros Records) “Dani California,” was released in 2006 as a single off of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’‘ ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium. It chronicles the life of a girl on the move named Dani who ends up dead in the Badlands. She’s the same character who appears in both “Californication“ and “By The Way.” “Dani California” debut at number 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, where it stayed for fourteen weeks, but not before being played for three hours straight on Houston’s KTBZ-FM radio station on April 3rd of the same year.
The video for Dani California is potentially even more iconic than the song itself. It was directed by Tony Kayne (American History X), who was only brought aboard after Mark Romanek declined the offer, and chronicles the evolution of rock. From rockabilly to metal to glam to punk, the band’s four members dress in flamboyant representations of every major musical movement of the past seven decades. The video seems as if it’s an elaborate game of dress up–like the band hired a world famous director and rented out a studio for fun because they wanted to try on Elvis’s pleather pants and Ziggy’s sparkles.
A well known 1996 clip, “Rock-n-roll This Night” by the Russian group Chaif provided the inspiration behind the video. “Dani California” went on to receive multiple 2006 MTV Video Music Award nominations including Video of the Year, Best Rock Video, and Best Cinematography nominations at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards (it won the award for Best Art Direction, but lost out on the others). Even though it failed to bring home more awards, “Dani California” continues to be source of a Halloween costume inspiration for people everywhere. And isn’t that really the most important thing?
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