Reception
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." Petty went on to say that he was amused when The Strokes openly admitted that they took the riff for "American Girl" and used it in their song "Last Nite".
Dani California peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 (remaining for two weeks at that position) and number 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks, remaining at the location for over 10 weeks. In the UK, the song fared even better, finding itself at the number 2 spot for one week, and eventually remaining on that chart for over 15 weeks.
The song is among the few tracks the Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded which have broken the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a success, with "Dani California" accumulating over 500 weeks collectively on over 20 charts.
The song is offered as a playable track in Rock Band and is exportable to Rock Band 2 but not in any future versions of the Rock Band series. On November 8 a patch made the song playable in Rock Band 3.
Read more about this topic: Dani California
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—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
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