Ten Songs You May Not Know Were Covered: California Dreamin' (#7)

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Boy songs, identically-titled songs, and songs that have cover versions! I'm a busy little hillbilly, aren't I? Here's another song that you may not know got a cover treatment. #7: California Dreamin' Sometimes you'll hear a cover of a well-known song and think, "Yeah! Nice interpretation!" I think that of a lot of the songs Linda Ronstadt did, and especially Bonnie Raitt's version of Del Shannon's "Runaway." Even when the cover isn't that good (see Dwight Yoakam's version of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," mentioned earlier) you think, "Well, at least he put his own spin on the song." Then you have songs that are so note-for-note identical to the original that you shrug and say, "Why did they even bother?" It's not that the Beach Boys couldn't do covers and make them sound like Beach Boys songs. Listen to their remake of Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music," from 1976, for instance. But in 1986 someone apparently suggested that they record the Mamas and Papas' classic "California Dreamin'"...and that they try to mimic the original recording so much that you couldn't tell the difference. Major fail. In fact, the only really good thing I can say about this version is that it made the lyrics of the Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl:" And someone played a Beach Boys song on the jukebox It was "California Dreamin', so we started screamin' on such a winter's day California Dreamin' Written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips Originally recorded by the Mamas and the Papas, 1965 Covered by the Beach Boys, 1986 You may need to listen to the original after hearing this one: