"Ventura Highway" is a popular 1972 song by the rock 'n' roll band America from its album, Homecoming.

The vocalist and writer of the song Dewey Bunnell has said that the lyric "alligator lizards in the air" in the song is a reference to the shapes of clouds in the sky. One day in 1963 his family was driving down the coast from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California and they had a flat tire. While his father changed the tire, he and his brother stood by the side of the road and watched the clouds and saw a road sign for "Ventura".

Bunnell also explained that the song is "about leaving". He was living in Omaha, Nebraska and he would walk through corn fields in the summer and freeze in the winter, and he remembered back to when his father was stationed at Vandenberg AFB, and dreamed of the sun and the ocean. The song has a "Go West, young man" motif in the structure of a conversation between an old man named "Joe" and a young and hopeful kid. "Joe" was modeled after a "grumpy" old man he had met while his dad was stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi (Keesler Air Force Base).

Paul Hardcastle (born 10 December 1957, London, England) is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.

In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo.

He achieved some acclaim for his early singles, notably in 1984, the electro-funk/freestyle/instrumental track, "Rain Forest", which along with the track, "Sound Chaser" hit number two on the dance chart. "Rain Forest" also hit number five on the soul chart and number fifty-seven on the Hot 100. In 1985, he came to greater prominence with the international hit "19", a song about America's involvement in the Vietnam War and the effect it had on the soldiers who served, using sampled dialogue from an American television documentary about the post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by veterans.

Hardcastle enjoyed several further hits in the UK, including "Don't Waste My Time" (with vocals by Carol Kenyon) (UK #8) and "The Wizard", a UK #15 hit that became the theme tune for BBC Television's music chart show Top of the Pops in the 80's. He also had a hit with "Just For Money", which reached #19 in the UK and featured Bob Hoskins and Laurence Olivier. Earlier, he had cut a cover version of D-Train's most influential hit "You're the One For Me", segued with his own compositions "Daybreak" and "A.M." Hardcastle also wrote the theme tune for Saturday Live, a popular entertainment show which ran from 1985-1987.

Helen Rogers (born 1962) began singing in 1978 with One Stop Music, an independent South London label specialising in reggae music. After joining Brit funk band Direct Drive as lead vocalist in 1982, Rogers (along with bandmates Pete Quinton, Robert Williams, Mick Ward and Mick Hammond) entered the Black Echoes Top 20 with "In The Middle of Spring" and "Pass The Paper" respectively.

In December 1984 the band released "Anything?" which reached #1 in the UK Black Echoes chart, remaining there for six weeks, and crossed over to the UK Singles Chart peaking at #67. This occurred after the band had signed to Polydor Records. Direct Drive then released "A.B.C. (Falling in Love's Not Easy)" which also charted peaking at #75 in the UK Singles Chart.

Rogers continued to record with Pete Quinton, and provided vocals on two of his songs "Half Chances" and "Shifting Sands", which featured in the 1987 film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. She also sang with funk band 7th Heaven, and provided vocals on Rory Bremner's spoof cricket version of Paul Hardcastle's "19" ("N-N-Nineteen Not Out" - UK #13). Rogers in addition providing backing vocals to Hardcastle's remix of Third World's "Now That We Found Love", and his version of Junior Walker's "Walk In The Night".