I can remember hearing this song come across the New York City radio airwaves…95.5 WPLJ-FM. Pat St. John, Carol Miller…Pete Townshend said that Ray Davies is the Poet Laureate of Rock & Roll! Leave it to an Englishman to write the greatest song about Hollywood ever composed!!!

“Those who are successful, be always on your guard. Success walks hand in hand with failure, along Hollywood Boulevard…”

Wiki-History: “Celluloid Heroes” is a song performed by The Kinks and featured on their 1972 album Everybody’s in Show-Biz. Written by their lead vocalist, Ray Davies, the song mentions many famous actors of 20th century film by name and also mentions Los Angeles‘s Hollywood Boulevard. Actors mentioned in the song include Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Bela Lugosi, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, George Sanders, and Mickey Rooney. The central theme of the song is the inhumane manner in which the Hollywood industry drains and exploits its stars, while their film images endure.

Although not a hit single, the track received consistent airplay on AOR radio stations in the US through the 1970s and into the 1980s. Airplay in recent years has been scarce with classic rock stations favouring only the bands’ top-40 hits.

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