HOLLYWOOD SEVEN (1977)

As pop songwriter Gloria Sklerov recalled:


At the time I was a staff writer for Garrett Music, who had a sub-publishing with the Australian publisher. They had asked me to write an "urban story song" for an
artist who had just had a major hit named Terry Jacks. The song was Seasons in the Sun. I really wanted to get that record. On the way home on the freeway, I passed a motel called "Hollywood Eight" which intrigued me. I started to think about who might be checking in there. When I got together with Harry Lloyd, we discussed it and decided to change the name to "Hollywood Seven'
because it "sang" better. We then plotted the story and it all sort of came to be like it was meant to.


Ironically, the Terry Jacks deal never happened and so the song was sent out to all the sub-publishers.


We were thrilled when we heard Jon's record because they used some of the synth riffs we had used on the demo and his vocal was great...
As a writer, I was very proud of Jon's version


About Vicki's version from 1977:


Single on Private Stock by star of The Carol Burnett Show. She also performed the song on the show.
Vicki Lawrence also recorded the Sklerov-Lloyd song He Did With Me, a hit in Australia. Her biggest hit was The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia (1972, #1 USA), written by her then husband Bobby Russell.


A label shot of a promo copy of the single is posted by Daniel J. Selby here.
The number of the 45 is PS1288, an unusual number for Private Stock singles 1974-1979 which were in the format PSR or PS 45,XXX. The single does not appear on any Private Stock singles discography that I've seen,
and I haven't found a label shot of a released single.


HOLLYWOOD SEVEN
(Gloria Sklerov & Harry Lloyd)


She came in one night from Omaha

Worn out, 'cause she could never sleep on trains

Took a bus to Hollywood

Looking for a room in the pouring rain

Her hair so blonde, her eyes so brown

She thought she'd take this town and turn it upside down


I was living in a hotel just off sunset

She moved in across the hall

She said she'd be a movie star

So she waited every morning for the call

I'd ask her in for coffee

But she hardly had the time

Her call might come tomorrow

And she had to know her lines


Hollywood Seven

Rooms to rent

Till your name goes up in lights

Hollywood Seven

You can dream your dreams for seven bucks a night


The months went by without a job

The money that she'd saved was nearly spent

She started bringing strangers home

Had to find a way to pay the rent

Staring at the ceiling

While she'd give herself away

Just busy rehearsing in her mind

The scenes she'd never play


Hollywood Seven

Rooms to rent

Till your name goes up in lights

Hollywood Seven

You can dream your dreams for seven bucks a night


I found her there one morning

When she didn't come for coffee when I called

She brought the wrong one home this time

There were crazy lipstick scrawls across the wall


Now she's going back to Omaha

But not the way she planned

There'll be no crowd to cheer her on

No "welcome home", no band


Hollywood Seven

Rooms to rent

Till your name goes up in lights

Hollywood Seven

You can dream your dreams for seven bucks a night


She came in one night from Syracuse

Excited from her first time on a plane

Took a cab to Hollywood

Dreaming of the lights that would spell her name