Songfacts®:

• Produced by and featuring Dr. Dre, "California Love" track is built on a sample from Joe Cocker's 1972 song "Woman To Woman." It wasn't the first time Cocker's piano-driven song was sampled: The Ultramagnetic MCs used it on their 1988 track "Funky."
• The song is a celebration of the California hip-hop lifestyle. Tupac and Dre rap about the vibrant activity and creativity they constantly encounter, but also warn about the gang violence, crime and social ills, which they mention with pride. The two rappers were a big part of the West Coast rap scene, with Dre creating innovative beats and setting the scene for gangsta rap, while Tupac led the way as an MC. Tupac was raised in New York but moved to California with his family. The lifestyle he raps about in this song caught up with him, as he was gunned down the following year.
• The heavily effected chorus ("California... knows how to party") was performed by Roger Troutman, who was known for creating synthesized vocals using a vocoder, although on this one he used a talkbox - the same device Bon Jovi used on "Livin' On A Prayer." He lifted the lyrics and vocal melody from a 1982 song called "West Coast Poplock" by Ronnie Hudson & The Street People.
  
  Many West Coast rappers sampled Troutman and emulated his work, and Tupac used Troutman's "Be Alright" as the basis for his 1993 song "Keep Ya Head Up." Troutman died in 1999 when he was shot by his brother after a dispute.
• "California Love" came at a transitional time for Tupac, who survived a shooting in November 1994, and in February 1995 started a jail sentence for sexual assault. His last album on Interscope Records, Me Against The World, was released in March while he was still in jail, and it went straight to #1. When he got out of jail in October, he signed with Dr. Dre's Death Row Records, which released "California Love" as a single with "How Do U Want It" in December. His album All Eyez On Me was released in February 1996, and again it debuted at #1.
  
  "California Love" blared from stereo systems throughout the summer of 1996 and spent two weeks a #1 in July. It was a triumphant return, but cut short when he was shot in a drive-by shooting on September 7, 1996 and died six days later.
• Tupac said in Rolling Stone seven months before he was shot that he didn't want this song to be about violence, rather, "I want it to be about money."
• The Mad Max-inspired music video was directed by Hype Williams and features funk mastermind George Clinton as the as the evil tribal chief and the actor Chris Tucker as his yes-man. It was shot in the desert in El Mirage, California
  
  In French MTV's 2006 show 100 Greatest Rap Music Videos, it came in #1. It also won the 1996 MOBO Award for Best Video in the UK.
• Dr. Dre performed this with Snoop Dogg at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, changing the line "I been in the game for 10 years makin' rap tunes" to "I been in the game for 30 years makin' rap tunes.
• Back in 1995 you probably couldn't have pictured Dr. Dre and Joni Mitchell on the same bill, but they played back-to-back at the FireAid benefit concert in Los Angeles on January 30, 2025 to raise money for victims of devastating wildfires in the area. Dre performed "California Love" with Anderson .Paak and Sheila E. to close out Paak's set, then Joni Mitchell took the state to sing "Both Sides, Now" from a throne.
• The version on Tupac's All Eyez On Me album is a remix that's slower and based on a different sample, using "Intimate Connection" by Kleeer instead of "Woman To Woman" by Joe Cocker. This version got a new video that finds Tupac waking up after dreaming about the original and calling Dr. Dre. The pair then hang out in Compton with a huge crew.
  
  That video was shot near the house of Kendrick Lamar, who was 8 years old; his father brought him to the shoot and put him on his shoulders so he could see. In 2012, Dre signed Lamar to his Aftermath label and became his mentor.
• The full-length version of "California Love" runs 6:29, but two cleaned-up radio edits were released, one running 4:45 and another at 4:03.
• Movies to use this song include:
  
  CHiPs (2017)
  Straight Outta Compton (2015)
  Battle: Los Angeles (2011)
  Valentine's Day (2010)
  Marmaduke (2010)
  Iron Man (2008)
  Iron Man 2 (2010)
  Underclassman (2005)
  
  TV shows to use it include:
  
  Fresh Off the Boat ("The Manchurian Dinner Date" - 2016)
  Parks and Recreation ("Save JJ's" - 2015)
  The Simpsons ("Angry Dad: The Movie" - 1996)
• "California Love" was just the second #1 hit on the Hot 100 with the word "California" in the title. The first, of course, was "Hotel California."
• The "shake it, shake it baby" part comes from a 1982 song called "Dance Floor" by Roger Troutman's group Zapp.