You’ve got to feel for Bob Seger. He and his bandmates lived a hard life on the road, as detailed in their classic hit “Turn the Page.” Then Seger makes it big, goes to Los Angeles, and has his heart broken by a manipulative woman, as he recounts in “Hollywood Nights.”
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“Turn the Page” was based on real-life events. “Hollywood Nights” seems like it could be, given that it’s about a “Midwestern boy” in L.A. As it turns out, the leadoff track from Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band’s 1978 album Stranger in Town is almost completely a work of fiction. The setting was a real part of Seger’s life, but he fabricated the other important details of the story. He took a look at a magazine cover, and he built “Hollywood Nights”’ narrative from there.
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A Midwest-California Love Affair
As for the reality-based part of “Hollywood Nights,” the lyrics that eventually became the outro came to Seger while he was driving, having just left his rental home in the Hollywood Hills. The words Hollywood nights, Hollywood hills / Above all the lights, Hollywood nights popped into his head as he took in the panoramic view of Los Angeles from the hills. Seger told Louder magazine that he knew he had the beginnings of a song, so he went back home and recorded the lyrics before he could forget them.
That’s where the real part of “Hollywood Night”’s story ends. Fortunately for Seger, he didn’t have to look far for the inspiration for the rest of the song. Seger saw a copy of Time magazine in his house, and he noticed model Cheryl Tiegs was on the cover. He imagined a story in which a young Midwestern man got involved with a glamorous woman from Southern California. (Tiegs grew up in the L.A. suburb of Alhambra.)
Seger—great storyteller that he is—wastes no time in setting the scene. In the first verse, he describes the moment the couple meet. He also establishes right away that this isn’t going to end well.
She stood there bright as the sun on that California coast
He was a Midwestern boy on his own
She looked at him with those soft eyes, so innocent and blue
He knew right then he was too far from home
Innocence and Connivance
But in the second verse, there is no sign of the troubles that lie ahead for our Midwesterner.
She took his hand and she led him along that golden beach
They watched the waves tumble over the sand
They drove for miles and miles up those twisting, turning roads
Higher and higher and higher they climbed
In the chorus, Seger shows us how his protagonist sees his newfound love: She was looking so right / In her diamonds and frills. He also gives us insight as to the deception she is planning with the lines Above all the lights / She had all of her skills.
While Seger hints at the glamorous Californian’s conniving, he paints the Midwesterner as being helpless and naive. In the first verse, Seger establishes that he is a “boy on his own,” and in the second verse, he is being led along the “golden beach.” In the third verse, we learn that he “lost all control” having looked at her “face that would let her get her way.”
In the fourth verse, we learn of the relationship’s sudden end.
Night after night, day after day, it went on and on
Then came that morning he woke up alone
He spent all night staring down at the lights of L.A.
Wondering if he could ever go home
And that’s how Seger ends the narrative, with his protagonist rendered stunned, broken-hearted and homesick. Seger uses the final chorus to turn up the emotional volume with lines like “it was giving him chills” and “with a passion that kills.”
The Impact of “Hollywood Nights”
As the second single from Stranger in Town, “Hollywood Nights” went to No. 12 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It was certified Gold in 2022. Stranger in Town has spent 110 weeks on the Billboard 200 with a peak position of No. 4.
“Hollywood Nights” was played in the Sunshine Plaza of the original Disney California Adventure Park. The theme park is adjacent to Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, 35 miles southeast of the Hollywood Hills.
Seger released “Hollywood Nights” at the beginning of his late ‘70s/early ‘80s commercial peak. Between 1978 and 1982, Seger placed five songs in the Top 10 of the Hot 100, and that doesn’t even include some of his biggest hits, like “Old Time Rock & Roll,” “We’ve Got Tonight,” and “You’ll Accomp’ny Me.” The fact that “Hollywood Nights” surpassed some of those hits to become Seger’s sixth most-streamed song on Spotify speaks to its continued popularity. It also says a lot about the strength of his performance and his gifts as a storyteller.
Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns
