KOKOMO (SONG)

"'Kokomo'" was penned by Mike Love, Scott McKenzie, Terry Melcher, and John Phillips and recorded by The Beach Boys in 1988.
In addition to the Beach Boys' signature layered-singing style, the song's instrumentation makes heavy use of steel drums. "Kokomo" was released on the album ''Still Cruisin''' in 1989 and featured in the hit Tom Cruise movie ''Cocktail''. It was the Beach Boys' first #1 hit in the United States since ''Good Vibrations'' in 1966. It is also their only #1 hit not written or produced by Brian Wilson. Although Wilson did not perform on the recording of the song, he did later contribute vocals to a Spanish-language version. In the original version lead vocals were performed by Mike Love and Carl Wilson.
"Kokomo" has appeared on several "worst song" lists, including VH1's "40 Most Awesomely Bad No. 1 Songs". However, it also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song - Motion Picture in 1989.
Some reports state that the authors of the song did not know there was an actual town in Indiana called Kokomo; they said at the time that they thought they had made it up because it sounded "exotic;" other reports said they thought it was the name of a bar in Montego Bay, Jamaica (while it is in fact the name of an island in Montego Bay). However, other reports have indicated that the band was familiar with the name of the town prior to recording the song, because they had previously recorded television commercials for Delco Bose sound systems, and Delco's headquarters were located in Kokomo, Indiana. Regardless, upon the release of the song, residents and city officials expressed great amusement, as illustrated on a number of features run on state and local television news.
The song mentions several other popular tropical vacation destinations, including Aruba, Jamaica, Key Largo, Montego Bay, Bermuda, Bahamas, Martinique, Montserrat, Mustique, Port-au-Prince, and the Florida Keys.
The song was also remade by The Muppets and was featured on Nick Jr.
California punk rock band The Vandals covered "Kokomo" as a bonus track on the 2000 "Anniversary Edition" of their 1990 album ''Fear of a Punk Planet''.
American singer-songwriter Adam Green was joined in the studio by Ben Kweller to record a cover of the song as a B-Side for Green's single "Jessica" in 2003.
In 1999, Radio DJ Bob Rivers parodied the song as "Kosovo". It was later parodied by Bob and Tom as "Camel Toe" and the Capitol Steps (also as "Kosovo," then several years later as "Guantanamo"). It was also parodied by DJs at Detroit radio station WCSX in 1997 as a song about Metro Beach Metropark's then-filthy and unsanitary beach waters.
In 2006, Beach Boys member Mike Love recorded a critically panned Christmas remake of the song, titled "Santa's Going To Kokomo".
In 2007, an episode of VH1's The World Series of Pop Culture featured a tie-breaker question with regards to this song. The question consisted of the geographical locations mentioned in the song. Other than Kokomo; Bermuda, Bahama, Key Largo, Montego were mentioned with the winning response being "off The Florida Keys" as mentioned by a member of the team "Twisted Misters", the competitions eventual champions.

Contents

Trivia

See also

Trivia

★ In the music video for the song, actor John Stamos can be seen playing the conga drums.

★ In the episode of ''Two Guys and a Girl'', "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Vacation", the main characters sing the song in the middle and the end of the episode.

★ Season 2, Episode 6(aired on 18 November 1988) Of Full House the Beach Boys made a guest appearance and sung the song Kokomo with the Tanner family.

See also

★ List of songs by The Beach Boys