[Steely Tom]

I remember it very clearly. I was in fifth grade. There were so many good songs during that time, in 1965 and '66; California Dreamin' was just one of them. A few years earlier, I had spent six months in Santa Monica; I walked to school every day, and I thought California was terrific. I didn't exactly miss it; I always believed I'd be able to go back and it would be the same as I remembered.

The story I heard was that the song came to John Phillips as he was waking up in a cheap NYC hotel next to Michelle. It was in the pre-dawn hours. He woke her up, asked her to write down what he sang, and said "this is going to make us rich." I don't think her contribution went beyond transcribing the words, I don't know if she also wrote down the music (I doubt it).

I saw an interview with Paul McCartney in which he was asked "how did you manage to make your songs so catchy?" He answered "we didn't have a tape recorder back then, the songs had to be catchy, or we'd forget them." Maybe that's how Phillips remembered the music.

I liked I Saw Her Again Last Night as much as I liked California Dreamin'. It came out six months later, in June 1966.

[nickcarraway]

When I lived in a cold foreign country, it meant a lot to me.