I Love L.A.

1983 song by Randy Newman
the Starcrawler song

"I Love L. A." is a song by Randy Newman. It was originally released on his 1983 album Trouble in Paradise. The song is about Los Angeles, California, and its hook is its title, repeated, each time followed by an enthusiastic crowd cheering, "We love it!"

Following the release of his sixth album Born Again (1979), Newman procrastinated writing songs for a follow up album, and spent a good portion of the next four years relaxing at home with his family. Newman jokingly noted that because he often lounged by the pool, the gardener had to water around him. To counter this lackadaisical lifestyle, Newman rented a recording studio in Los Angeles in 1983, which did not have any telephones to distract him. In this studio Newman recorded a song called "Something to Sing About", in which the narrator arrogantly boasts about the suburban opulence around him. Album producer Lenny Waronker disliked "Something to Sing About" and opted not to include it on the singer's upcoming album. Although "Something to Sing About" was not used, the song's message of delusion and arrogance served as an inspiration for "I Love L. A." Another source of inspiration came from a conversation Newman had with Eagles drummer Don Henley while on an airplane. Henley told him that he could no longer afford to charter Learjets, to which Newman sarcastically responded: "Jesus that's tough you can't live on a million a year anymore". During the same flight, Henley suggested Newman should write a song about Los Angeles, as he was a native of the city. This conversation, as well as "Something to Sing About", not only served as the inspiration for "I Love L. A. ", but also the themes of hedonism and disillusion found in the song's parent album Trouble in Paradise. "I Love L. A." and the rest of the songs from Trouble in Paradise were recorded at Warner Bros. Recording Studios in Hollywood, with producers Waronker and Russ Titelman. Mark Linett served as the audio and mixing engineer, while Bobby Hata was the audio master. Several members of the rock band Toto provided groove instrumentation, and Waddy Wachtel played the rhythm guitar. "I Love L. A." begins with a soft opening verse, which features electric piano and saxophone instrumentation. The opening verse borrows the melody of Rodgers and Hart's 1937 song "The Lady Is a Tramp". Newman begins this verse by deriding New York City as a place where "people dressed like monkeys", and saying Chicago should be left to the "Eskimos". The soft verse then transitions to a more upbeat, pop rock driven melody, influenced by the sound of the Beach Boys. Newman sings about rolling down the windows and pulling back the top of his convertible as he feels the Santa Ana winds brush against him. Newman proceeds to point out various objects and people, such as Matterhorn Bobsleds, palm trees, homeless people, and beautiful California women. The song did, however, reach #110 on Billboard Bubbling Under chart during April 1983. The following year, Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics, and the company Nike ran an ambush marketing campaign during the event. The campaign included a commercial featuring Newman singing "I Love L. A." while Olympic athletes Mary Decker and Carl Lewis ran and jumped wearing Nike gear. The commercial played throughout the Olympics, and as a result, "I Love L. A." received worldwide exposure. In 1985, Kris Kardashian (now Kris Jenner) covered the song with her own spin titled "I Love My Friends". Her daughters recreated the video for her 60th birthday in 2015.

"I Love L. A." has been used in many feature films. The song was the first and the last music video aired on Cable Music Channel. The song was also used in some of the network's IDs and commercial promos. "I Love L. A." is played following major sporting events in Los Angeles if the home team has scored or won, notably when the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Kings and the Los Angeles Galaxy win, with it being the Kings' former goal song. The Dodgers adapted the title to "We Love L. A." as a marketing slogan for the 2015 season, prompting Los Angeles Times writer Steve Dilbeck to quip, "It's not 'I Love L. A.' like in the song, but we love L. A. Guess they wanted to save paying royalties to Randy Newman." The sequence of streets in the song was parodied in the 1985 song "Born in East L. A." by Cheech Marin. But instead of listing the streets sung by Randy Newman, listed are Soto Street, Brooklyn Avenue, City Terrace, and Whittier Boulevard, all streets of East Los Angeles. In June 2014, as part of losing a bet on the National Hockey League Stanley Cup finals between the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings with Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio sang the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, wearing an "I Love L. A." T shirt and accompanied by disadvantaged youth from the 52nd Street Project.