It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks (as a double A-side single with "How Do U Want It") and also topped the charts of Italy, New Zealand, and Sweden.

The original was released as a double-A side single together with "How Do U Want It" and intended for the Dr. Dre album The Chronic II, while the remix was included on 2Pac's All Eyez on Me.

The chorus, "California knows how to party", was sung by Roger Troutman using his characteristic talk box and was taken from the 1982 song "West Coast Poplock" by Ronnie Hudson & The Street People which was written by Ronnie Hudson and Mikel Hooks and was itself a reworking of Troutman's 1981 song "So Ruff, So Tuff."

[citation needed] Sheet music for "California Love" shows the key of G minor, and a moderate tempo of 92 beats per minute.

[7][better source needed] Michael Hill from Cash Box noted that 2Pac and Dr. Dre "are clicking some smooth lyrics together over this killer ass dance track.

This track is smoking, and with the introduction of funk royalty Roger Troutman on the vocoder, it simply bursts into flames.

You are in a disco dotted with palm trees, smothered in Gracelands-style soft furnishings and dancing with a coked-out Ray Liotta, looking like hell at the end of Good Fellas.

"[10] Ralph Tee from Music Week's RM Dance Update rated the song four out of five, describing it as "a fusion of funk and hip hop on this excellent rap cut about the splendour of the US's sunshine state."

He added further, "Dr. Dre's production sparkles on this potential hit which takes the vocoder and horns from Zapp's 'So Ruff So Tuff' (Roger Troutman also appearing in the Mad Max-style video) and on its best mix the sticky bassline from Kleeer's 'Intimate Connection' underlines it all.

Shakur's longtime friend, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, came up with the concept inspired by the 1985 film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

The rest of the music video takes place as if it were a home video celebrating 2Pac's welcome to Death Row and features several cameos, notably Roger Troutman who is now playing the piano, and guest appearances from DJ Quik, Big Syke, Deion Sanders, Danny Boy, Nadia Cassini, Jodeci, B-Legit and E-40.

[19][20] "California Love" was voted the 11th best single of 1996 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual critics poll run by The Village Voice.