"I Love L.A." is a song by the American singer Randy Newman. It was originally released on his 1983 album Trouble in Paradise. The song is about Los Angeles, California, and its hook is its title, repeated, each time followed by an enthusiastic crowd cheering, "We love it!" The video for the song shows Newman and model Laura Howard driving around Los Angeles in a convertible.

Following the release of his sixth album Born Again (1979), Newman procrastinated writing songs for a follow-up album, and spent a good portion of the next four years relaxing at home with his family. Newman jokingly noted that because he often lounged by the pool, the gardener had to water around him. To counter this lackadaisical lifestyle, Newman rented a recording studio in Los Angeles in 1983, which did not have any telephones to distract him. In this studio Newman recorded a song called "Something to Sing About", in which the narrator arrogantly boasts about the suburban opulence around him. Album producer Lenny Waronker disliked "Something to Sing About" and opted not to include it on the singer's upcoming album.

Although "Something to Sing About" was not used, the song's message of delusion and arrogance served as an inspiration for "I Love L.A." Another source of inspiration came from a conversation Newman had with Eagles drummer Don Henley while on an airplane. Henley told him that he could no longer afford to charter Learjets, to which Newman sarcastically responded: "Jesus that's tough...you can't live on a million a year anymore". During the same flight, Henley suggested Newman should write a song about Los Angeles, as he was a native of the city. This conversation, as well as "Something to Sing About", not only served as the inspiration for "I Love L.A.", but also the themes of hedonism and disillusion found in the song's parent album Trouble in Paradise.

"I Love L.A." and the rest of the songs from Trouble in Paradise were recorded at Warner Bros. Recording Studios in Hollywood, with producers Waronker and Russ Titelman. Mark Linett served as the audio and mixing engineer, while Bobby Hata was the audio master. Several members of the rock band Toto provided groove instrumentation, and Waddy Wachtel played the rhythm guitar.

AllMusic's Matthew Greenwald believes "I Love L.A." is Newman's only attempt at writing an "anthem", as the song features an energetic and buoyant melody not commonly found in the singer's previous music. "I Love L.A." begins with a soft opening verse, which features electric piano and saxophone instrumentation. The opening verse borrows the melody of Rodgers and Hart's 1937 song "The Lady Is a Tramp". Newman begins this verse by deriding New York City as a place where "people dressed like monkeys", and saying Chicago should be left to the "Eskimos". The soft verse then transitions to a more upbeat, pop rock driven melody, influenced by the sound of the Beach Boys. This influence is evidenced when Newman name-drops the band in the lyrics, as well as alluding to their 1963 song "Surfin' U.S.A."

Following the musical shift, the lyrics now depict Newman driving down Imperial Highway in Los Angeles with a "big nasty redhead" at his side. Newman sings about rolling down the windows and pulling back the top of his convertible as he feels the Santa Ana winds brush against him. He proceeds to name-drop several regions in Los Angeles such as South Bay, the Valley, the Westside, and the Eastside and how everyone in these regions are happy because the sun is shining. The chorus features Newman singing the phrase "I love L.A." several times, while Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham of the band Fleetwood Mac respond each time with "We love it".

After the first chorus, the music temporarily shifts to a new section that removes the guitar and heavily emphasizes the synthesizer, before returning to its original melody in a different key. Newman proceeds to point out various objects and people, such as Matterhorn Bobsleds, palm trees, homeless people, and beautiful California women. Newman then name-drops several famous streets in Los Angeles: Century Boulevard, Victory Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, and the Sixth Street Viaduct. Each time he says the name of a road, McVie and Buckingham respond with the phrase "We love it". A guitar solo (played by Toto's Steve Lukather) follows, before the song ends with the chorus.

Newman is well known for his sardonic lyrics, as he would often write a song from a character's perspective and mock the first-person character and others like them. This style of songwriting can be seen in some of Newman's other songs, such as the slaveholder's perspective in "Sail Away" (1972), and the redneck perspective in "Rednecks" (1974). Despite its lively sound, "I Love L.A." also includes these sardonic lyrics, specifically about the shallow and dark aspects of Los Angeles. When Newman is listing off various sites in Los Angeles, Newman is discussing how residents will talk about the lavish excess of the city (palm trees, beautiful women) in an attempt to hide the squalor (a homeless man begging for money).