In The Quantity Ones, I’m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the Billboard Scorching 100, beginning with the chart’s starting, in 1958, and dealing my means up into the current. E book Bonus Beat: The Quantity Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the Historical past of Pop Music.

Greetings, family members. Let’s take a journey.

Earlier this week, Vainness Honest revealed a lengthy article known as “Can Anybody Repair California?” The reply issues lower than the query. The state of California has loads of issues proper now: rampant wildfires, heartbreaking ranges of homelessness, out-of-control housing costs, fixed site visitors gridlock. For individuals who work in any respect ranges within the leisure enterprise, the out-of-whack streaming-service financial system has been fucking everybody’s cash up. In a really quick time, the complete metropolis of San Francisco has been seemingly remodeled right into a playground for ultra-wealthy tech dorks. A few of these issues are new, and a few are perennial. However California continues to be California. These of us who dwell elsewhere are inclined to get off a airplane, really feel the 73-degree climate, see a single palm tree, and instantly fall in love.

In 1965, the Seashore Boys, a gaggle that’s been on this column a number of instances, reached #3 with their tune “California Ladies,” a shimmering reverie about “the cutest ladies on this planet.” (It’s a 6.) That tune is a fantasy. The Seashore Boys themselves had been a fantasy — handsome, bright-smiling younger males layering up their choirboy harmonies to sing dizzy odes to browsing within the post-World Struggle II promised land. Within the years that adopted, that fantasy would come aside. The world would be taught all of the darkish components of the Seashore Boys delusion: parental abuse, psychological sickness, medication, exploitation, the Manson Household, demise, members of the family suing one another, Mike Love hanging out with Donald Trump. The fantasy of the Seashore Boys is likely to be gone, however the fantasy of “California Ladies” stays.

Forty-five years after that Seashore Boys tune, one other fantastical quantity about California ladies went all the best way to #1. This one got here from an precise California woman who by no means actually felt like one. Katy Perry, born in Santa Barbara, spent her childhood shifting across the nation, whereas her Pentecostal-preacher dad and mom launched one failed ministry after one other. For Perry, in style music and its attendant fantasies had been forbidden fruit, and that should’ve made the lure a lot stronger. Finally, Perry moved to LA, launched a pop profession, and refashioned herself as somebody unforgettable — a tremendous, contemporary, fierce California woman who’s obtained it on lock.

Fantasy was what made Katy Perry well-known. After struggling her means by the pop enterprise for years, Perry lastly took off with the softcore party-time manifesto “I Kissed A Lady.” That tune alienated Perry’s authentic Christian-pop viewers, and it had her personal mom speaking shit about her within the press, however it additionally launched her into the stratosphere. As soon as she had her arms on pop stardom, Katy Perry wasn’t going to let go.

For her second major-label album, Perry and her collaborators put collectively a bulletproof assortment of gleaming hooks, an avalanche of sugar. That album made chart historical past, and it turned Perry right into a titan. Teenage Dream piles one fantasy on prime of one other, from radical self-acceptance to alien intercourse. Perry led all of it off with one other fantastical ode to the women of California. This time, the fantasy wasn’t about being with California ladies, with wishing all ladies could possibly be California ladies. As a substitute, the fantasy was all about being a California gurl.

Katy Perry didn’t have to fret about being a one-hit surprise. After “I Kissed A Lady” launched her straight to #1, Katy Perry landed two extra songs within the prime 10, and each of them had been means higher than her monster hit. (“Scorching N Chilly” peaked at #3. It’s a 9. “Waking Up In Vegas” peaked at #9. It’s an 8.) In between album cycles, Perry guested on minor hits from Timbaland and 3OH!3. She additionally obtained engaged to extraordinarily tiresome British comic Russell Model within the midst of a whirlwind romance that began after a wild evening on the VMAs. That relationship wouldn’t finish properly, however when Perry made Teenage Dream, she was nonetheless freshly in love, and her relationship saved her within the tabloid press.

In little greater than a yr, Katy Perry had propelled herself to A-list fame, however she’d additionally been round sufficient to know that fame could be fleeting. When it got here time to comply with her album One Of The Boys, Perry took no probabilities. Perry co-wrote each tune on her Teenage Dream LP, however she had some very severe assist. She went to work with a dream workforce of pop-music professionals: Stargate, Tough Stewart, Cathy Dennis, Rivers Cuomo, Ryan Tedder, Greg Kurstin, Esther Dean. Not all of these hitmakers landed tracks on Teenage Dream, however all of them had been within the combine, attempting to assist Katy Perry make hits. Extra importantly, Perry additionally had Max Martin, Dr. Luke, and Benny Blanco — three individuals who’d labored on “I Kissed A Lady” and who principally owned the circa-2010 pop charts.

Katy Perry has mentioned that “California Gurls” is her reply to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State Of Thoughts,” which fortuitously topped the Scorching 100 when she was engaged on Teenage Dream. I don’t know whether or not I consider her, however I like the concept the 2010 pop charts bore witness to a cartoonish, unthreatening replay of the fabled ’90s East Coast/West Coast rap wars. It’s even funnier when you think about that Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg, two characters in that saga, had been concerned in its fluffy reboot. Of their video for the 1995 single “New York, New York,” Snoop and Tha Dogg Pound famously famously towered over the NYC skyline, kicking skyscrapers down. A couple of years later, on his tune “Cash, Money, Hoes,” Jay requested, “What the dealings? It’s like New York’s been mushy ever since Snoop got here by and crushed the buildings.”

In any case, the Katy Perry of “California Gurls” doesn’t sound notably involved about New York, and her collaborator Snoop Dogg doesn’t come off like somebody who’s able to crush some buildings. These two aren’t about to run off and file a bubblegum model of “Hit ‘Em Up.” Even the Seashore Boys felt like they needed to examine California to different locations, giving the East Coast ladies and the Midwest farmers’ daughters their due. However on “California Gurls,” Perry solely bothers with an offhand line about how one can journey the world however nothing comes near the golden coast. On “California Gurls,” the state of California is a world unto itself. No different place bears mentioning.

Six folks have writing credit on “California Gurls,” and plenty of of these persons are not California natives or ladies. Max Martin is from Sweden, Dr. Luke from New York, Benny Blanco from northern Virginia. Snoop Dogg is from California, however he’d be the primary to inform you that he’s not a lady. One among Perry’s collaborators, nevertheless, is one other California woman. Bonnie McKee, raised in Seattle however born in Vacaville, obtained her begin as a teenage phenom who was signed to Warner Bros. She launched her debut album Bother in 2004, when she was 20 years previous. It was a business failure, and none of its tracks charted. Within the nice John Seabrook ebook The Track Machine, McKee says, “Principally, I went from trade darling to nobody answering my telephone calls. It was brutal. I felt like I used to be already washed up earlier than I obtained began.”

After Bother flopped, Warner put Bonnie McKee into profession stasis — not dropping her, however not committing to releasing something, both. McKee was determined to both get pushed or dropped, so she devised a method. Right here’s how she tells the story in The Track Machine:

I made a CD of my finest songs, and acquired a dagger at a smoke store that had a tiger on the deal with and a jewel for an eye fixed, and went to the CEO of Warner Bros.’ home in the midst of the evening and stabbed the CD right into a tree proper by his entrance door, and I wrote “Platinum Child!” in lipstick on his automobile. The following day was his child’s first day at college, so there was pandemonium — everybody thought a maniac had come in the midst of the evening… Evidently, I obtained dropped.

After she obtained her launch from Warner, Bonnie McKee went broke and developed an issue with crystal meth. She occurred to fulfill Katy Perry when she was promoting garments to a secondhand retailer on Melrose. At that time, Perry was additionally caught on the trade shelf, and she or he and McKee turned mates. Whereas Perry blew up, McKee remained caught. However whereas Perry was engaged on a tune from Teenage Dream — one that can seem on this column very quickly — she and her collaborators had been caught on among the lyrics. Perry known as McKee in to assist, and McKee ended up co-writing three songs from the album, together with “California Gurls.” From there, McKee turned a vastly profitable songwriter; we’ll see extra of her work on this column.

“California Gurls” began off with Katy Perry and Bonnie McKee brainstorming collectively. McKee later instructed Songfacts, “The primary line that we wrote was, ‘It seems like summertime’ and one thing about melting popsicles. We went house and slept on it, and the subsequent day she got here again and mentioned, ‘OK, I’ve obtained it: “California Gurls.”‘ I used to be like, ‘Sensible, I do know precisely what to do with this.’” McKee would possibly’ve skilled some actual Californian darkness, however there’s none of that on the tune. As a substitute, the “California Gurls” lyrics converse of “a spot the place the grass is all the time greener,” the place you’ll be able to sip gin and juice beneath palm bushes, the place Snoop Doggy Dogg is on the stereo and ladies don’t thoughts sand of their stilettos.

Katy Perry would possibly sing about freaking in Jeeps and pores and skin so sizzling that it’ll soften your popsicle, however the fantasy of “California Gurls” isn’t actually sexual. As a substitute, it’s an idealized imaginative and prescient of a party-all-the-time way of life the place nothing issues. The music displays that fantasy. The unholy troika of Max Martin, Dr. Luke, and Benny Blanco concoct a observe that appears to tug no matter it desires from previous pop eras — ’70s disco, ’80s synthpop, ’00s home. We get bubbly slap-bass, chicken-scratch guitars, vocoder sighs, Pixie Stix Vengaboys keyboard-bounce — all put in service of the type of melody that’s custom-designed to get caught in your head endlessly.

In a 2010 New York Occasions profile, Katy Perry, out on the promo rounds for Teenage Dream, hears “California Gurls” for the billionth time and huffs, “God, that tune is so annoying.” She’s not the one one who’s ever felt that means. However the issues that can be annoying about “California Gurls” are additionally the issues that make it so efficient. The tune is mercilessly sticky, to the purpose the place it feels everlasting. When Perry chants about “daisy dukes, bikinis on prime,” it feels unattainable that these phrases, on this order, haven’t all the time existed collectively.

Max Martin is the reigning genius of the precision-engineered pop tune, and he’s written among the best bridges in pop historical past, however he didn’t actually have to put in writing one for “California Gurls.” Snoop Dogg did that job for him. By 2010, Snoop was a part of California’s cultural firmament. Snoop was a number of years out from showing on Akon’s chart-topper “I Wanna Love You,” and he was persevering with to crank out reliably first rate G-rap albums that principally labored as model extensions. Snoop may nonetheless make successful on his personal, however these hits felt increasingly like flukes. In 2007, for example, Snoop used T-Ache’s Auto-Tune to purr an ’80s-funk intercourse observe that sounded a bit like chillwave. “Sexual Eruption” — or, in its radio-friendly model, “Sensual Seduction” — made it to #7 early in 2008. (It’s a 6.)

On “California Gurls,” Snoop understands his function. He’s there for appeal and native coloration. He jumps on the observe for a number of bars, says a number of mildly sexy issues that gained’t have to be bleeped out, and provides the observe a fast shot of his laid-back gravitas with out including any of the sting that his presence would’ve as soon as implied. He’s nice, truthfully. Snoop doesn’t pound an adrenaline needle into the tune, the best way somebody like Ludacris would’ve completed, however this tune doesn’t want an adrenaline needle. It simply wants Snoop to slip in together with his collection of partytime non-sequiturs: “Bikinis, zucchinis, martinis, no weenies/ Simply the king and a queenie.” Snoop additionally rasps that he needs all of them could possibly be California ladies. The Seashore Boys, who publicly endorsed the Katy Perry tune, had copyright points with that line, and it obtained faraway from the “California Gurls” album model.

“California Gurls” marked the final time that Snoop Dogg appeared on a #1 pop hit, however Snoop stays a cultural establishment, and I wouldn’t wager in opposition to him randomly touchdown one other one sooner or later. Since then, Snoop has dabbled in reggae and synth-funk and Comedy Central roasts. (Listen in on Donald Trump in 2011: “I’ll not have half his paper, however I obtained twice the dick.”) Snoop has ambled his means into the highest 10 a number of extra instances. In 2011, for example, Snoop teamed up with Wiz Khalifa and Bruno Mars on “Younger, Wild & Free,” which made it to #7. (It’s a 5. Wiz and Bruno will each seem on this column quickly.)

Snoop nonetheless makes music; he’s at the moment within the supergroup Mount Westmore with fellow Cali rap legends Ice Dice, Too Brief, and E-40. Final yr, Snoop obtained along with Ok-pop phenoms BTS and his “California Gurls” collaborator Benny Blanco, and their tune “Dangerous Selections” peaked at #10. (It’s a 6. BTS might be on this column a bunch of instances.) However music looks as if what Snoop does in between extraordinarily entertaining sports-commentator gigs and enterprise initiatives that all the time appear barely mind-boggling. Snoop is now, for example, the proprietor of Demise Row Information, the label that when paid him — a fairly superb flip of occasions, when you consider it.

Do you know that Snoop Dogg is the villain of the “California Gurls” video? This by no means even occurred to me till I learn the plot abstract on Wikipedia. The “California Gurls” video doesn’t even hassle with an idealized model of California. As a substitute, the clip takes the tune into the realm of even-more-abstract fantasy within the board-game land of Candyfornia.

Katy Perry, with a costume manufactured from sweet and a face filled with Disney-princess surprise, walks by an odd place the place all the pieces is manufactured from some type of sugary deal with. She eats an ice cream cone that she pulls off a tree, after which she’s mildly scandalized when a CGI gummi bear provides her the finger. Katy meets different Candyfornia gurls, imprisoned in bubblegum bubbles or Jello cubes, they usually overcome the obstacles set forth by Snoop’s Sugar Daddy. Lastly, Katy defeats Snoop and his gummi-bear military within the instantly-iconic scene the place she mounts whipped-cream cans on her boobs and shoots white stuff all over the place. Apparently, Snoop’s not too mad to bounce with Katy and her mates on the seashore on the finish.

I by no means even thought to search for narrative logic within the “California Gurls” video. As a substitute, it’s a complete sensory expertise — so faraway from actuality that the very thought of battle appears unattainable. Mathew Cullen directed he clip, however its visible language comes from the pop artist Will Cotton. (The Teenage Dream album cowl — Katy Perry bare in a cotton-candy cloud — appears to be like like a nonetheless from the “California Gurls” video, however it’s actually a portray from Cotton.) As soon as once more, the video appears sexual, however it by no means goes for titillation. As a substitute, it’s pure campy playfulness, too overwhelmingly foolish to actively offend anybody.

I ought to point out the spelling of the “California Gurls” title. Alex Chilton, chief of beloved ’70s cult-pop establishment Large Star, died all of a sudden in March of 2010. The title of “California Gurls” is Katy Perry’s salute to Chilton and to Large Star’s traditional 1974 tune “September Gurls.” Perry wasn’t an enormous Large Star fan. As a substitute, the nod was a favor to her supervisor. She instructed Leisure Weekly, “My supervisor, Bradford — he’s from Mississippi, and he’s an enormous Large Star fan. And with the demise of one in every of their members, I had simply written that tune, and he’s like, ‘Katy, only for me, will you please title it ‘California Gurls,’ with a ‘u’? Individuals gained’t even know!’ I don’t know the entire catalog of Large Star, however I did it as a result of Bradford is one in every of my finest mates, and I believed it was cool, and you already know, the youngsters like these variations.”

Large Star made dozens of attractive pop songs, however they by no means discovered the mass acceptance that they so badly needed. (I’m fairly positive Large Star by no means had a Scorching 100 hit, although Alex Chilton has been on this column because the chief of the Field Tops.) “California Gurls” was by no means in any hazard of struggling an identical destiny. The tune was a juggernaut, and its success appeared preordained. With “California Gurls,” Katy Perry tapped into the pressure of frothy, EDM-friendly pop that was all around the radio in that second, and she or he made all her rivals appear to be absolute amateurs. With its video, she gave her personal wholesomely attractive spin on the all-out freakiness that Woman Gaga had launched a number of years earlier. The consequence was plain, and Katy Perry adopted it with a single that was much more plain. She’ll be again on this column very quickly.

GRADE: 8/10