“If Hollywood Don’t Need You (Honey I Still Do)”
Don Williams
Written by Bob McDill
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
February 18, 1983
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
March 5, 1983
One of my greater frustrations of the new century was watching Lady A’s “Need You Now” become a massive crossover hit, despite it being a clunky rewrite of the flawless drunk dial record “I May Hate Myself in the Morning,” which Lee Ann Womack had scored with only a few years earlier.
I wonder if Don Williams felt the same way about “Meet Me in Montana,” which we will cover a little bit down the road. There’s something about the specificity of the details in “If Hollywood Don’t Need You” that makes it resonate so much more powerfully. Perhaps it’s also the way that Williams’ humble delivery mirrors the man left behind. He wants her back, but not at the expense of her dreams. He’s willing to be No. 2 on her list until she crosses No. 1 off, if she ever does:
Well, I hope you make the big timeI hope your dreams come trueBut if Hollywood don’t need youHoney, I still do
Now is as good a time as any to remind y’all of Don’s secret weapon in the studio: Garth Fundis. He didn’t work with as many artists as Jimmy Bowen did, but he operated at a similar level of excellence, and he had the good taste to spend most of his career focused on Don Williams and Trisha Yearwood, two artists who had lengthy radio careers defined by consistent material and thoughtful performances.
Records like this helped lay the groundwork for the nineties boom, and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.
“If Hollywood Don’t Need You (Honey I Still Do)” gets an A.
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Don Williams is probably the only person who could convey sadness with lines like “If you see Burt Reynolds could you shake his hand for me / and tell ol’ Burt I’ve seen all his movies.”
I absolutely adore this song and Don Williams.
The thing I liked most about Don Williams was his ability to deliver his message without histrionics. This song is typical Don Williams – quietly understated melancholy without becoming a tearjerker. I cannot think of a Don Williams single that I didn’t like.