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.
