We'll Never Understand How This 1999 Red Hot Chili Peppers Banger Failed To Hit No. 1
It had been one hot minute before the funk rock machine known as the Red Hot Chili Peppers released "Californication" in 1999. The record peaked at the No. 3 position on the Billboard 200, staying on the charts for a jaw-dropping 108 weeks and confirming RHCP's place as one of the most important rock bands of the 1990s. Heck, even the hit single "Scar Tissue" picked up a Grammy Award. But do you know which famous song from this album hardly made a dent on the charts? The title track, "Californication."
Released as a single in 2000 and centered around what California actually sells to the dreamers, "Californication" peaked at No. 69 — an ironic number considering what the group often sings about — on the Billboard Hot 100. In comparison, "Scar Tissue" and "Otherside" hit the ninth and 14th spots, respectively.
It's unfathomable to think that "Californication" couldn't even match the performance of the other singles, since it's established itself as a quintessential RHCP song. Both Kerrang and Rolling Stone heralded it as the band's best song ever, and as of early 2026, it also has over 1.9 billion streams on Spotify alone. Mind you, this was the era when people were singing along to nonsense like Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba," so maybe there was something in the water that affected musical taste.
Red Hot Chili Peppers actually sued a TV show for the use of the term Californication
As it turns out, the Red Hot Chili Peppers remained immensely proud of the track "Californication." So much so that the group sued the Showtime TV series of the same name, starring David Duchovny, for using the term as its title, claiming copyright infringement in 2007.
According to a court filing featuring comment from Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis (via TheWrap), "'Californication' is the signature CD, video, and song of the band's career. For some TV show to come along and steal our identity is not right." This statement leaves no doubts about how much importance the band places on the album and title track to its legacy. Ultimately, this dispute turned into a hot legal debate over whether RHCP could claim "Californication" as a trademark, since the term had been used decades before the song had even been released.
The series "Californication" aired for seven seasons and never changed its title, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Showtime settled the matter out of court. Maybe the decided amount was enough to buy a star on the boulevard.