Dani California

"Dani California" is a song from American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers' ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium (2006). The single was first made available at the iTunes Music Store and was officially released on April 28, 2006. The international radio premiere was on April 3, 2006, when Don Jantzen, from the Houston radio station KTBZ-FM, played "Dani California" continuously for his entire three-hour program.

The single peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's third and most recent single to enter the top 10. In addition, "Dani California" became the second song (after R.E.M.'s "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" in 1994) to debut at number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, staying there for 14 consecutive weeks. It also charted at number one on the Mainstream Rock chart, where it spent 12 straight weeks on top. The song won two Grammy Awards: one for Best Rock Song and the other for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. It marked the band's joint-biggest UK hit to date along with "By the Way", peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Altogether, the single reached the top five in 10 countries.

Throughout the song, lyricist Anthony Kiedis laments the early death of Dani, a poor, young Southern girl who eventually lived in California, became a mother and lived a hard, fast, unsettled life. Kiedis has commented that the character of Dani is a composite of all the women with whom he has had relationships. The song narrates much of Dani's life, starting with her birth in Mississippi and apparently culminating with her death in the badlands, by a North Dakota policeman, while en route to Minnesota.

Dani first appeared in the 1999 song "Californication", which includes the lyrics "Teenage bride with a baby inside/Gettin' high on information" although the girl's name is not specified. She was next mentioned in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 2002 single "By the Way" as "Dani the girl". Kiedis commented: "When this funky groove came up it struck me as a perfect place to actually tell a story. It sort of revealed itself to me that it's been the same character, just kind of developing. At first I didn't realize that I was writing about the same girl."

Guitarist John Frusciante used various instruments and effects devices in order to achieve the textures and treatments used throughout the song, including Mellotron, Moog effect pedals, and a Doepfer modular synthesizer, used for the filtering and processing of pre-recorded tracks. The one-minute guitar solo at the end of the song is an adaption of Jimi Hendrix's intro to "Purple Haze", with the effects kept very close to the original.

Shortly after its release, the originality of the song was questioned on the Dan Gaffney Morning Show on Delaware-based news/talk radio station WGMD 92.7 FM. Two of the station's talk show hosts, Dan Gaffney and Jared Morris, alleged that the Red Hot Chili Peppers had plagiarized Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' 1993 hit "Mary Jane's Last Dance". To demonstrate, they presented audio snippets of both songs, both side by side and simultaneously (i.e. on top of each other) several times. They stated that the chord progression, key, and the lyrical theme of the songs (both produced by Rick Rubin) showed "startling similarities" and urged listeners to "decide for themselves."

Although the chord progressions sound similar, they do in fact differ as "Mary Jane's Last Dance" follows "Am, G, D, Am" (A Dorian mode), while "Dani California" follows "Am, G, Dm, Am" (A minor). University of Chicago musicologist Travis Jackson said the songs' chord progressions were similar, but were a "pretty standard groove" in music and not necessarily evidence of copying.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Petty denied rumors that he planned to sue the Chili Peppers and said, "I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock & roll songs sound alike."