The Best of Times~Taylor Hicks' "Hollywood Nights"

It was the best of times. The world was new.

The 2006 American Idol tour was complete, and the fall days were filled with exciting anticipation.

Newly-crowned American Idol, Taylor Hicks, was in the studio in California recording his victory album for Arista. He talked of this time as one of the happiest in his life, when he could smell the ocean from his open window in the morning.

“Hollywood Nights” was our anthem!

There was no twitter. Fans stayed connected through fan boards and media interviews. And for a short time, Friday Night Happy Hour was seeing a new release by Taylor Hicks from the studio for Rehearsals.com.

“Hollywood Nights” created a sensation!

It would have blown up Twitter, if Twitter had been around.

It was a rehearsal, raw, imperfect, and excitingly real! Jeff Lopez, from back home in Alabama and longtime band mate of Taylor Hicks, played saxophone like there would never be another California sunset. “Hollywood Nights” also proved that music is perfect in its imperfections. Taylor changed (flubbed?) the words, added expletives, and fiddled with his ear piece. But this performance takes you from a rehearsal hall to a place higher than the Hollywood Hills.

It was real, like life…sometimes horribly imperfect, but exhilarating.

Taylor was riding the crest of success finally achieving the long elusive dream of finding his voice. On May 24th that year, he was star of the most watched and most popular show on the planet—American Idol Finale, Season Five.

“Hollywood Nights” screamed, “Yes, I Can!”

For the fans seeing this raucous, in-your-face recording, it was affirmation that we were right, and we were in for the ride of our lives!

A few weeks later, December 9, 2006, Taylor Hicks, the album, was released. It was certified platinum on January 17, 2007.

So much has happened since that Friday night when “Hollywood Nights,” took our breath away. So much has changed.

Except the passionate and sensational music.  

Twitter would have received “Hollywood Nights” in its signature, succinct style:

“OMG!!!”

Which says it pretty well. 

And life has never been the same for the Southern boy “looking down on the lights of LA.”

Nor for us!

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Thanks to @Sweetsmoke on Twitter for taking us back and reminding us of the not so boring and in no way anemic performance of Taylor Hicks’ “Hollywood Nights!”

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The sensational music of Taylor Hicks is alive and well at Paris Las Vegas throughout 2013! See it for yourself! 
http://www.parislasvegas.com/shows/taylor-hicks.html