California 1

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For the highway, see California State Route 1.

California 1 was recorded by Mercury Records artist Con Funk Shun and released in 1981. The lyrics were written by Linda Lou McCall, wife of the veteran funk band's drummer/co-founder, the late Louis A. McCall. She hummed a raw melody to her husband and the band's lead singer/trombonist, Felton Pilate, who then created the rock-inspired arrangement. Using the Grammy-award winning song "Sailing" by Christopher Cross as her inspiration for the melody, Linda Lou penned the lyrics while she and Louis were on vacation in Carmel, CA. Sitting on the banks of the Pacific Ocean with the waves of Big Sur pounding against the rocks, Linda Lou quickly jotted down the words that would become the basis of the song on a paper napkin. The title comes from California's State Route 1 (Pacific Coast Highway as it is referred to in southern California), which technically begins just north of the Mexican border and runs north to the Canadian border. With much of it running right on the Pacific Ocean, the highway showcases some of America's most influential cities (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco) and most scenic landscape. Linda Lou wrote the song as a lasting tribute to the beauty and wonder of her adopted state. Felton Pilate's powerful rock guitar arrangement, skillfully re-created by Con Funk Shun's lead guitarist, Michael V. Cooper, made the tune a stand-out on "7", the band's seventh album for Mercury Records, which also contained the Top 20 Billboard R&B hit, "Bad Lady, also co-written by Linda Lou. California 1 continues to be a favorite among Con Funk Shun fans all over the world and appears on several of the band's recently released "Best of Con Funk Shun" and "Greatest Hits" CDs.