SONGFACTS

This came together when the music producer Terry Melcher was hired to work on a song with The Beach Boys for the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail. The Beach Boys' glory days were behind them, and they had been playing fairs and nostalgia shows. They were one of the most popular bands of the '60s, and had a bunch of songs dealing with recreation and fun, which is why they were asked to record for the movie. In a Songfacts interview with Mike Love, he explained how it came together: "Terry was in the studio doing a track with a demo, because we were asked to do the song for the soundtrack of the movie Cocktail, featuring Tom Cruise. So we were asked by the director to come up with a song for this part of the movie where Tom Cruise goes from a bartender in New York to Jamaica. So that's where I came up with the 'Aruba, Jamaica' idea, that part. So Terry was in the studio doing the track and they didn't have the chorus yet. They just had a certain amount of bars, but there was nothing going on there. I said, 'Well, here's what I want to do.' And I remember I had told them about the part before. But he said, 'Uh huh. How does it go again?' So I literally, over the phone - he was in the studio and I was on the phone - sang [deadpan slow recitation]: 'Aruba, Jamaica, ooo, I want to take you.' So he's writing that down, and I'm singing it in the scene, the notes, and the timing of it in tempo to the track.

Melcher was the son of actress Doris Day. In 1964, he worked as a staff producer at Columbia Records, where he teamed up with future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston on the hit "Hey Little Cobra," which was credited to The Rip Chords. He was a producer on the first two Byrds albums and went on to work with Paul Revere And The Raiders. He knew The Beach Boys and contributed to some of their work, including backup vocals on Pet Sounds. Through Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, he met Charles Manson and worked on some projects with him before thinking better of it. In 1969, Manson and his "family" murdered five people at a house Melcher rented to director Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate. Polanski was away filming, but Tate, who was pregnant, was one of the victims. After the murders, Melcher went into seclusion. This was a big comeback for him as well as The Beach Boys.

Brian Wilson was the creative force behind The Beach Boys, but he had nothing to do with this song. He released his first (self-titled) solo album that year and came out with the first single, "Love And Mercy," three weeks before this was released. The album peaked at #54 in America.

Terry Melcher wrote this song with the help of John Phillips, who was a former member of The Mamas And The Papas, along with Beach Boy Mike Love, and Scott McKenzie, who had a hit in 1967 with "San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)." Phillips' daughter Chynna was in the group Wilson Phillips with Brian Wilson's daughters, Carnie and Wendy.

Regarding the composition of the song, Mike Love told us: "The verses and the verse lyric was written by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. He wrote 'Off the Florida keys, there's a place called Kokomo, that's where we used to go to get away from it all.' I said, 'Hold on. We used to go sounds like an old guy lamenting his misspent youth.' So I just changed the tense there. 'That's where you want to go to get away from it all.' So that was the verse. And it was very lovely. But it didn't have such a groove, I didn't feel. So I came up with the chorus part: 'Aruba, Jamaica, ooo, I want to take you to Bermuda, Bahama, come on, pretty mama. Key Largo, Montego...' That's me, the chorus and the words to the chorus was Mike Love. The verse was John Phillips. The bridge, where it goes, 'Ooo, I want to take you down to Kokomo, we'll get there fast and we can take it slow. That's where you want to go, down to Kokomo,' that's Terry Melcher. Terry Melcher produced the Byrds and Paul Revere & the Raiders, very successful producer. But he actually produced that song and he wrote that bridge part, which Carl Wilson sang beautifully. And I sang the rest of it. I sang the chorus and the verses on that particular song.I don't know what Scott McKenzie's involvement was, I honestly don't, because all I know is John Phillips, Terry Melcher, and myself put that song together, all those different elements."

Kokomo is a city in the middle of Indiana and is also a small resort owned by Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay; the title was made up. It was supposed to represent all the tropical places and images that people think of when wishing to get away to some paradise island to escape the dreary work life. John Phillips thought the name sounded good and wanted to use it for the title.

The Beach Boys are known for their vocal harmonies, but session musicians often played the instruments on their albums. The same thing happened here - Jim Keltner was brought in to play drums and Ry Cooder was hired on guitar. Keltner has played on albums by George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello. Cooder has worked on many film soundtracks and has played with John Hiatt, Captain Beefheart and Taj Mahal. The session musicians were not credited.

Van Dyke Parks was called in to help record the song. He worked closely with Brian Wilson and was a big part of the "Smile" project - an album Wilson worked on when he was going through drug addiction and severe mental problems. Parks was one of the few people in Wilson's world at the time, and helped with lyrics on the project, which wasn't finished until 2004 when Wilson released it. Having Parks at the sessions made it more of a legitimate Beach Boys song: he arranged the steel drum band and played accordion on the track. This was released in July 1988, but it went nowhere until the movie came out a few months later and made it a huge hit. When The Beach Boys played it live during concerts that summer, it got no response.

The single was released with the original version of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" as the B-side.
Before "Kokomo," the last US #1 for The Beach Boys was "Good Vibrations" in 1966. At 22 years, it was the longest any act had gone between US #1 hits until Cher topped the charts with "Believe" in 1999. Her previous #1 hit was "Dark Lady" in 1974, setting the new record at 25 years. When this became a hit, many companies capitalized on the "Kokomo" name, which as a result of the song, implied relaxing fun in the sun. A resort named "Kokomo" popped up on the southern tip of Florida on an island called Grassy Key - like the song says, "Off the Florida Keys." There have also been restaurants and bars with that name.

The Muppets did a version of this song. The plot was that Miss Piggy wanted to know if there could be anywhere more perfect than where they were, and Kermit starts in about how he'd love to go to Kokomo, with Miss Piggy sighing periodically as backup. It was supposed to be a Muppet Summer love song. Animal, of course, played the drums in the video.

The Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the year this was released.