What's going on my fellow rock n' rollers. Don't forget to hit the bell notification
icon to be notified every time i put out a new video on my channel. In 2006 the
Red Hot Chili Peppers released their ninth studio album Stadium Arcadium.
One of the biggest singles off the album and the Chili Peppers career
was song dani california, but the band soon found themselves being compared to musician Tom Petty
and it wasn’t in a way they had hoped. What happened? Stay tuned to find out!
Dani California would become the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s 3rd single of their career after Scar
Tissue and Under The Bridge to be a top ten hit on the billboard hot 100 charts. In addition to that,
Dani California became the second song with the first being REM’s what’s the frequency kenneth,
which I’ve also already done a video on to debut at number one on the billboard modern
rock charts where it stayed their for 3.5 consecutive months. The song would also go
on to win two grammy awards for best rock song and best performance by a duo or group with a vocal.
The song tells a story of Dani who would be a poor girl from the south who lived in California,
had a child, while also lived a fast and dangerous life and eventually dying. Dani would represent a
composite of all of the women frontman Anthony Keidis had had relationships with in his life.
Dani first appeared in the 1999 song "Californication" even though her name
isn’t explicitly stated which includes the lyrics "Teenage bride with a baby inside/Gettin' high on
information.” A reference is also made to her in the band’s 2002 single "By the Way"
as "Dani the girl". Ad Kiedis would reveal in an interview : "When this funky groove came up
it struck me as a perfect place to actually tell a story. It sort of revealed itself to
me that it's been the same character, just kind of developing. At first I didn't realize that
I was writing about the same girl" he'd say. While the song received much critical praise,
a morning radio DJ in Deleware named Dan Gaffney who worked for radio station WGMD 92.7
claiming the band plagiarized the Tom Petty and Heartbreakers 1993 hit Mary Jane’s last dance.
They would play the songs side by side and state the chord progression, the key and even lyrical
themes were very similar and they would ask their audience to decide for themselves.
And soon enough, other news outlets picked up on this and it became widely reported.
Even though the chord progressions do sound similar they are in fact different.
University of Chicago Musicologist Travis Jackson would tell Rolling Stone magazine
that while the chord progressions were very similar they were pretty standard groove in music
and it didn’t necessarily mean it was evidence of plagiarism. Other people would also point to
the fact that tom Petty’s song mary jane’s last dance sounds eerily similar to the Jayhawks 1992
song Waiting for the Sun. The Jayhawks ironically enough were an opening act for Tom Petty in 1992
and the band’s keyboardist also played on both Waiting for the Sun
and Mary Jane’s Last Dance. Also interesting was the fact that Rick Rubin produced Dani California
and Mary jane’s last dance. When the story picked up steam and started being nationally syndicated
news stories at the time reported that the The Chili Peppers could be facing a huge plagiarism
lawsuit as Tom Petty was made aware of the similarities and was apparently looking into
legal ramifications. It was also interesting to mention that both bands were on the same label
Warner Records and for the record label Stadium Arcadium was their biggest album of the year
and if Petty were to file legal action it was reported that the album could’ve
been pulled from shelves pending litigation. At the time Tom Petty's rep, Heidi Robinson,
said in a statement : "I am well aware of this situation. The two songscertainly do
sound similar, don't they? I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Tom doesn't
have a comment on this at all. I have no idea if he is going to sue the Chili Peppers, and am not
prepared to make a comment on that" she'd say. Eventually Petty would comment on the matter
when he was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine where he would say the following
The truth is, I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there,” “a lot of rock & roll
songs sound alike.” When he was asked if he considered a lawsuit, Petty said nah. “I don’t
believe in lawsuits much. I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people
fighting over pop songs" he'd say. So let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Do
you see a lot of similarities between the songs and what do you think tom petty should have done
at the end of the day. Thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe.
If you have suggestions for future topics, let me know in the comments section below. Take care.