Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Videos of Summer: California Girls (1985)

David Lee Roth will never be mistaken for a brain surgeon (although he has spent some time as an EMT), but after breaking away from Van Halen in the mid-80's, he created some wacky music videos.

Now, I will go on record and admit I've never been a big fan of "Diamond Dave", but I do respect the man's body of work. Case in point is his cover of the Beach Boys' classic, "California Girls", which Roth released in 1985 as the first single from his solo EP, "Crazy From The Heat". Roth would later dial it down and try to do some more serious stuff ("Sensible Shoes" comes to mind), but he was ham, eggs, and a case of juice all rolled into one. I don't know who he recruited to do a Rod Serling mimic in the narrative, though.

If one of those platinum-wigged hotties at the 2:05 mark looks relatively familiar, well, she should. That's original MTV VJ Martha Quinn under the wig and earmuffs on the left. Seems she & Dave were a couple at the time, from what I heard. Anyway, a lot of people on YouTube, commenting on this clip, as supplied by Jonboy122, have compared this to Katy Perry's "California Gurls" (note the spelling). Why bother? I haven't heard Katy's version, so I don't know if there's any reason to compare. Here's Dave and friends:

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