On a recent episode of their podcast, The Osbournes dug up Sharon Osbourne‘s forgotten disco song titled “You Can Strike Oil in Hollywood.” The song was recorded in 1978 under the group name THE SHEIKETTES.
It was inspired by a house on Sunset Boulevard that a young Arab couple had bought and decorated with plastic flowers and statues of naked women to attract attention.
After the chauffeur set the house on fire, Sharon was inspired to write and record the tune with Carol Connors and Avril Giacobbi. The track was released as a vinyl single through Jet Records.
Sharon said: “This is why we did it. … There is a house on Sunset Boulevard, and it’s an ugly white house now… It used to be a beautiful white classic home… I went into the house several times and it had an unbelievable speakeasy.”
“Anyway, the house was up for sale, and a young Arab couple bought it, and the wife filled the garden … with plastic flowers.… It was so ridiculous that it made the news… and people used to come down on the weekend to [see the house] … and this young Arab couple loved it, so then they got statues of women naked … so that the traffic would keep looking at their house. And then, they fell out and the chauffeur set fire to the house and it burned down.”
