“Around the World” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

"Around the World" is the song that kicks the door open on Californication, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' seventh studio album, and it was sent out as the record's second single in 1999. Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis and Chad Smith wrote it together, and Rick Rubin produced it for Warner Bros.

It's the album's loudest reminder of where the band came from. The verses are pure funk rock, a jittery, rubber-limbed groove with the vocal spat out almost faster than the syllables can land, and then the chorus swings wide open into something sunnier and more melodic, the Chili Peppers of the late '90s finding room for a tune without giving up the bounce. Rubin keeps it dry and close, so the whole thing sounds like four people in a room trying to outplay each other.

It reached number seven on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and 16 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and it has traveled since: a heavily edited cut became the ride soundtrack for Rockin' California Screamin' at Disney California Adventure in 2007, it opened the 2010 live-action film of Beck, and a live take was one of the thirty songs on the Songs for Japan charity album in 2011.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.