Artist: The Cranberries
Released on: To The Faithful Departed (Track #1)
Duration: 5:08

LYRICS

oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

I’ve got a picture in my head (in my head)
It’s me and you, we are in bed (we are in bed)
You’ll always be there when I call (when I call)
You’ll always be there most of all (all, all, all)

I’ve got a picture in my room (in my room)
I will return there I presume (should be soon)
The greatest irony of all (shoot the wall)
It’s not so glamorous at all (all, all, all)

This is not Hollywood, like I understood
Is not Hollywood, like, like, like
This is not Hollywood, like I understood
Is not Hollywood, like, like, like
Runaway, runaway, is there anybody there
Runaway, runaway, is there anybody there
Get away, get away, get away-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
Get away, get away, get away-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
Ho-o-o-o woho-o-o-o
Ho-o-o-o woho-o-o-o
This is not Hollywood (runaway)
This is not Hollywood
Like, like (runaway)
Like, like (runaway)
Like, like (runaway)
Like, like (runaway)
Like, like (runaway)
Like, like (runaway)
Like, like (runaway)
Like, like (runaway)
Like, like (runaway)
Like, uh

CREDIT INFORMATION

Music and Lyrics by Dolores O’Riordan
Produced by Bruce Fairbairn and The Cranberries
Engineered and Mixed by Mike Plotnikoff
Recorded in November-December 1995 at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, Ireland
Orchestration written and arranged by Michael Kamen
Published by Island Music Ltd

MEANING

Fergal explained in an interview given to Hot Press in November 2002, “I suppose when you’re 17 or 18 you imagine being in a band and what’d be like being really successful and all that, but in ’96 it had been six years of non-stop touring, and then our time off was spent recording or writing and then you’re back out on the road again promoting it. We had no break or holiday really, just a couple of weeks here and there in the whole six years. I think we were all disillusioned by the whole thing because it wasn’t what we expected it to be and we weren’t very happy. That’s kind of where that song is coming from, the whole idea of Hollywood being this myth”.
In 1996 in Detroit, Dolores said before singing Hollywood, “The grass always seems greener on the other side but when you get there, you want to go back to where you came from, maybe… maybe”

NOTES

“Hollywood” is the 4th single released from “To The Faithful Departed” in 1997. It was only released in France.
In 2003 Fergal was asked why the singles “Hollywood” and “You and Me” were only released in certain countries. He answered, “In some places, the discs that included those songs, To the Faithful Departed and Bury the Hatchet, had a longer lifetime, so the record company asked us for more singles and we told them yes, so those were the ones that we chose.”
In October 2002 the band included the song to the setlist in Paris for the first time in six years. During that tour the song was then regularly played. (Fergal, cranberries.ie, 19 October 2002)
During concerts Dolores introduced the song several times saying, “This is called Not Hollywood” but on the album the official title is “Hollywood”