Songfacts®:

• One of the few Yardbirds songs sung by their guitarist Jeff Beck, this song mentions several places in America, which is where the Yardbirds enjoyed some of their most decadent moments. While they were always more popular in their native England, The Yardbirds had a lot of American fans and toured there frequently. Looking back in 2010, Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty told us that these trips to America where a high point. Said Jim: "We'd go from being on top of the charts and going to fantastic places and traveling to places like California that were just our dream after being in a sort of post-war London, which was rather dismal and rather miserable. Suddenly we were going to sunny California where things were happening and things were rich and there were lovely girls and cars and everything."
• It's clear in this song that California was where The Yardbirds had the most fun, and mentioned twice in the lyrics is Mary Hughes, who was a Hollywood blonde that starred in movies like Muscle Beach Party and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini . She and Jeff Beck had an affair.