“My indiscreet heart, how it longs for that sweetheart, that I left in old Monterey.” These are the lyrics Frank Sinatra sang in It Happened in Monterey, back in 1956! There have been many songs about our area – Carmel, Pebble Beach, Big Sur, Monterey, and of course California itself – since then. The Beach Boys had at least three songs about California in the title alone, including California Feelin’ and California Girls. Native Californians love, and rightly so, to write and sing about our state, and, yes, even about the beloved cities and towns you and I live in. Whether or not you grew up in the 1960s era of peace and love (and protests), who can forget Eric Burdon & the Animals Monterey, about the famous Monterey Pop Festivals that included the likes of Jimi Hendrix? Are there more titles, or songs that include our neighborhoods in their lyrics? Many more. Here’s a shortlist of a few other songs we know that have our neighborhoods in the song title:
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- Big Sur (The Beach Boys)
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- Big Sur (The Thrills)
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- Carmel Valley Ride (Caroline Doctorow)
- Monterey (The Milk Carton Kids)
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- Pebble Beach (David Benoit)
There are more songs than this with our towns and cities named in them. And there are far too many songs to list that have Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey, or Pebble Beach in their lyrics. Here are just a few, covering several musical genres:
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- Road Trippin’ (Red Hot Chili Peppers) – mentions Big Sur in the lyrics
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- Cloudy (Simon & Garfunkel) – mentions Carmel in the lyrics
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- The Ballad of Aimee McPherson (Pete Seeger) – mentions Carmel-by-the-Sea in the lyrics
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- Generic Crunk Rap – The Graduate (MC Lars) – mentions Carmel Valley in the lyrics
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- Mobile Home (The Presidents of the USA) – mentions Pebble Beach in the lyrics
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- Carmichael (Neil Young) – mentions Pebble Beach in the lyrics
Did we miss one of your favorites? Please drop us a line, and tell us the title of songs about California that mentions your town.
Earl Brown says:
Hi – I remember a song in the ’40’s called “Meet me in Monterey, that’s where the fishes play . . .”
Every heard f it?
Earl Brow
ebrown@sky44.com
Beachy says:
Eric Burden and the song Monterey. He wrote it when he performed at Monterey Pop.
Krimp Fuentes says:
Elizabeth Wheeler 1915 “In Monterey”