Song of the Day 4/26: The Kinks, “Celluloid Heroes”
I should have posted this yesterday in advance of the Academy Awards, though the Hollywood Ray Davies was singing about — most of the stars he names were dead or retired when the song came out on “Everybody’s in Show-Biz” in 1972 — bears scant resemblance to today’s film industry. I doubt one person in a thousand born after 1960, even in the UK, could tell you who George Sanders was.
“Everybody’s in Show-Biz” was considered a major disappointment on the heels of one of the Kinks’ best albums, “Muswell Hillbillies.” A chopped-down version of “Celluloid Heroes” was released as a single in America in November 1972, but it failed to chart. Apparently the record-buying public wasn’t in the mood for Hollywood nostalgia right after Nixon’s landslide re-election. Then again, the song also missed the charts in England, where the Kinks were much more popular and the single ran full-length. The album cut did get a good bit of FM airplay.
The most notable cover of the song was by Joan Jett for her 1990 all-covers LP, “The Hit List,” a surprisingly sentimental choice considering Jett’s tough grrl persona. She must have heard it on the AM radio — she omits the third verse.
A much better version was released in 2010 by Blackmore’s Night, the onetime Deep Purple guitarist’s British folk/acoustic project featuring his now-wife Candice Night on vocals, finally giving this ballad a decent vocal treatment.
Rebecca; The Falcon; The Saint. But hey, I was born long before 1960!
Those of us born early enough were born into a TV landscape that had little to fill all those hours beyond old movies. Get much past a 1960 birthdate and you probably don’t remember when the TV had only three channels, four if you counted Channel 12.
I was born in ’65 but I’d say the line is closer to 1968. Three network channels and two very fuzzy UHF stations all trying to fill airtime with old movies, and endless reruns of ‘Gilligans Island’ That was my childhood.
BTW – The Kinks have a lot of good songs. This is not one of them.
Really? I LOVE this song.
The buying public agreed with Jason, musicians, judging by the many covers, agree with El Som.
’61 here. The pre-teen me didn’t have much use for old movies and thought they were boring. It wasn’t until much later that I recognized them as a great American art form and cultural landmarks with iconic actors and settings.