"Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd" is a song by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey from her ninth studio album of the same name (2023). It was released as the lead single from the album on December 7, 2022. Del Rey wrote the song with Mike Hermosa and both produced it with Jack Antonoff, Drew Erickson, and Zach Dawes.
Background and release
The song was written by Del Rey and Mike Hermosa, with whom she also co-produced it, alongside Jack Antonoff, Drew Erickson, and Zach Dawes. The track is a slow dreamy ballad described as baroque orchestral pop.
In an interview with Billie Eilish for Interview, Del Rey revealed that "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd" was the first song written for its parent album of the same name. She also shared that the song and title were inspired by a sealed tunnel under the Jergins Trust Building in Long Beach, California, and a 1974 track by Harry Nilsson titled "Don't Forget Me". She had read that "the [tunnel's beautiful] mosaic ceilings were still perfectly preserved, but no one could get in", and was compelled to write a song inspired by Nilsson's track using her own metaphors.
Critical reception
Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork described the song as a "slow, dreamy ballad filled" with "incidental moments" and found the tunnel in the title to be "less a geographic focal point than a window into the potential she sees in the most familiar scenes and well-traveled routes".
Personnel
Credits are adapted from Tidal.
Lana Del Rey – vocals, background vocals, songwriter, producer
Mike Hermosa – producer, songwriter, acoustic guitar
Jack Antonoff – producer, drums, electric guitar, synth bassist, programmer, mixer Drew Erickson – producer, conductor, string arranger, piano, synth bass Zach Dawes – producer Jim Keltner – drums Benji Lysaght – acoustic guitar, sound effects Christine Kim – cello Jake Braun – cello Logan Hone – clarinet Charlie Bisharat – violin Andrew Bulbrook – violin Wynton Grant – violin Paul J. Cartwright – violin Vonciele Faggett – background vocals Melodye Perry – background vocals Shikena Jones – background vocals Laura Sisk – engineer, mixer Michael Harris – engineer Dean Reid – engineer Bill Mims – assistant recording engineer Jon Sher – assistant recording engineer Mark Aguilar – assistant recording engineer Ben Fletcher – assistant recording engineer Matt Tuggle – assistant recording engineer Ruairi O'Flaherty – assistant recording engineer Brian Rajaratnam – assistant recording engineer Ivan Handwerk – assistant recording engineer Megan Searl – assistant recording engineer