It Never Rains In Southern California - Albert Hammond (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

It Never Rains In Southern California (Albert Hammond, 1972). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2023-03-16. "Keeping the Oldies & Classics Alive"

"It Never Rains In Southern California," written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, was Hammond's only top ten hit rising to the no. 5 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972 (Whitburn, 2013). "It Never Rains In Southern California" was an autobiographical description of Hammond's trials and tribulations trying to make it in the music business and moving from Morocco, to Los Angeles; the song was written in London when Hammond was broke and tried to bum money for food and transportation to get to America but didn't want his father to find out. However, while bumming for money at a London train station, one of his cousins saw him but Hammond said "I didn't even know it was him... I just asked him for some money, too. And he said 'you should be ashamed, I'm gonna tell your father,' and I said 'please, don't tell him, he'll go crazy and stop me doing this!' . . . he did tell my father, you know. All these things like 'will you tell the folks back home I nearly made it' and all that stuff came from that era of my life when I was struggling, trying to make it, trying to get from Morocco to Spain, from Spain to England, from England to America... That struggle you go through, that's It never rains in Southern California, the story of my life" (songfacts, 2023).

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Lyrics:

Got on board a westbound seven forty-seven
Didn't think before deciding what to do
Ooh, that talk of opportunities, TV breaks and movies
Rang true, sure rang true

Seems it never rains in southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before
It never rains in California, but girl, don't they warn ya?
It pours, man, it pours

I'm out of work, I'm out of my head
Out of self respect, I'm out of bread
I'm underloved, I'm underfed, I want to go home
It never rains in California, but girl, don't they warn ya?
It pours, man, it pours

Will you tell the folks back home I nearly made it?
Had offers but didn't know which one to take
Please don't tell 'em how you found me
Don't tell 'em how you found me
Gimme a break, give me a break

Seems it never rains in southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before
It never rains in California, but girl, don't they warn ya?
It pours, man, it pours