I’ve been gently badgering my colleagues over at Hockey Night In Canada to use Nancy Sinatra’s How Are Things In California? for the opening of their broadcast of Monday night’s Stanley Cup final, but with little success so far. Jimmy Hughson thinks I’m living in the past; Scott Oake just thinks I’m crazy; and last year, when I handed executive producer Joel Darling a disc of California songs, he said there were some songs under consideration, but then Edmonton went to the finals and that was that.
Question: What would be the best California song to set the stage for an Anaheim Ducks-Ottawa Senators’ showdown? Every year, before the Stanley Cup final opens, I burn a disc of songs to play in the rent-a-car stereo on the drive to and from the airports and the arenas – and here, where it takes 45 minutes on a good day with no traffic to get from LAX and Orange County and even longer to get to the beaches (must find Ducks fever somewhere!), it’s even more important to have a good, scene-setting musical compilation.
Naturally, with so many great California songs out there, this year’s selection turned out to be easier than most. Ultimately, I opted for two by Nancy Sinatra (the aforementioned track plus her cover of Route 66). I also took two by The Thrills (Big Sur and Santa Cruz, both of which would have been more appropriate for a Sharks’ final); and two by the Chili Peppers (Dani California and Californication). There is the Beach Boys’ California Girls and Chilliwack’s California Girl; the Eagles’ Hotel California and the Wallflowers’ Back To California. There are three different songs, all entitled California, one by the Wild Strawberries, one by the Pretenders (off the Pirate Radio box set) and one by Wilson Phillips (a cover version of Joni Mitchell’s California). I have Marc Jordan’s live version of Livin’ In Marina Del Rey (thanks to Mike Brophy of the Hockey News for pointing me in that direction).
Then there is California Dreamin’ by the Mamas and the Papas; California Blue by Roy Orbison; California Nights by Lesley Gore; California Promises by Jimmy Buffett; California Soul by the Fifth Dimension, plus two versions of California Sun (by the Rivieras and Los Straitjackets). I left off Albert Hammond’s It Never Rains in Southern California because I didn’t want to jinx the weather (cool and not so sunny as of this moment) and Ventura Highway by America, which I seem to have misplaced. I simply forgot about Warren Zevon’s Desperadoes Under The Eaves, which includes the brilliant rhyme, ‘if California slides into the ocean, like mystics and statistics say it will ….’ Geez, I wish I could write like that. There is even an Anaheim specific song – Jan & Dean’s follow-up to their hit, Little Old Lady From Pasadena, called The Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association (featuring the timely observation, “they work all day, making jam and preserves; and on weekends, they negotiate curves”).
So California is well-covered; the problem is, five days hence, we land in Ottawa and I can not come up with a single tune to hum about our nation’s capital. There are Montreal songs (Montreal by Blue Rodeo, I Just Want To Stop by Gino Vannelli); Toronto songs (Raised On Robbery by Joni Mitchell, Coldest Night Of The Year by Bruce Cockburn); Vancouver songs (English Bay by Blue Rodeo); and Alberta songs (Alberta Bound by Gordon Lightfoot and Four Strong Winds by either Ian Tyson or Neil Young), but for Ottawa, unless there's something by Alanis Morisette that I'm forgetting, I need help … and of course, so do are friends over at Hockey Night.
