Bob McDill Archives - chimesfreedom

You may never have heard of Mo Pitney or the Don Gibson record “If Hollywood Don’t Need You.” But if that is the case, and you love a great country ballad, you need to watch Pitney’s acoustic performance of the song alone with his guitar in the woods.

I recently discovered Pitney and his wonderful voice. So I only recently ran across this pandemic video he posted on Facebook in October 2020. The young Illinois native is early into what looks to be a promising career. The singer-songwriter has released two studio albums: Behind This Guitar (2016) and Ain’t Lookin’ Back (2020). Both are worth checking out for both Pitney’s voice and his songwriting.

This performance of “If Hollywood Don’t Need You,” with nothing but a guitar and the trees behind Pitney, reveals the depth of Pitney’s talents. He takes a great song, which has been one of his favorite songs since he was a kid, and he breaks your heart.

Don Gibson released his version of the song — also known with a parenthetical as “If Hollywood Don’t Need You (Honey I Still Do)” — in 1982. Originally appearing on Gibson’s album Listen to the Radio, “If Hollywood Don’t Need You” went to number one on the country charts for Gibson, who passed away in 2003.

Pitney made a video for the song back in 2016. But in this 2020 performance and video, the setting in the woods highlights the aching in the song’s tale. The singer professes his love in a letter to the woman who left him to pursue her dreams. He knows he has to let her go, hoping she makes “the big time” and that her dreams come true. But, he reminds her, if Hollywood doesn’t need her, he will be there waiting for her.

The song was written by Bob McDill. The songwriter wrote country classics, including Gibson’s “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” which we previously wrote about.

Here,”If Hollywood Don’t Need You” has several layers. On the surface, the singer is wishing the best to his former lover while letting her know he misses her. But underneath it all one may hear the words as an appeal asking her to return.

And no matter how you interpret the lyrics, there also is a cool reference to actor Burt Reynolds: “Oh, and if you see Burt Reynolds / Would you shake his hand for me? / And tell old Burt, I’ve seen all his movies.” Check it out.

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Good Old Boys While recently re-watching the movie Primary Colors (1998) for the umpteenth time, I noticed a song I had never really noticed before. It occurs after John Travolta’s character Gov. Jack Stanton meets with Larry Hagman’s Gov. Fred Picker. In a key scene near the end of the movie that was directed by Mike Nichols, Stanton walks away from Picker’s southern mansion singing a song.

Stanton then says how he loves the song, in particular a line about the Williams boys, Hank and Tennessee. He expounds, “The picture ain’t never complete without old Tennessee.” The song is “Good Ole Boys Like Me.”

I can still hear the soft southern winds in the live oak trees
And those Williams boys, they still mean a lot to me
Hank and Tennessee
I guess we’re all gonna be what we’re gonna be
So, what do you do with good ole boys like me?

The song captures the charm of Travolta’s character, who is based upon Bill Clinton during his race for the presidency. It also shows the politician’s embrace of Southern culture.

The Song

Bob McDill wrote “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” a song that stacks together images of Southern culture. The images range from a Civil War general to great American novelists like Thomas Wolfe.

McDill initially offered the song to Kenny Rogers, who found it too literary. So, Don Williams recorded the song and created a classic.

Other people mentioned in the song are DJ’s like Wolfman Jack and John R., the latter of whom McDill listened to as a kid on WLAC radio out of Nashville. McDill found inspiration to write the song with images of Southern culture while reading the novel A Place to Come To, by Robert Penn Warren.

McDill tells more about the story behind the song in the video below. Check it out.