Sharon Osbourne revealed a “secret disco band song” titled “You Can Strike Oil – In Hollywood” that she recorded with a group called the Sheikettes more than 40 years ago.
You can listen to the track below.
The Osbournes matriarch detailed the song on a recent episode of The Osbournes podcast, which also features her husband, Ozzy Osbourne, and their children Kelly and Jack. The family received a fan-submitted question that said, “Had you found Sharon’s secret disco band song yet?”
Indeed they had. “You are not the only singer in this family,” Jack told Ozzy. “Who knew Kelly and I came from such greatness when it comes to music?”
The Prince of Darkness seemed perplexed to learn his wife sang on the track, commenting, “She’s fucking tone-deaf.”
The family then played a portion of the song, which opens with the popular “Arabian riff” (also known as “The Streets of Cairo” or “the snake charmer song”) before entering traditional disco territory.
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Sharon then explained the inspiration behind the Sheikettes track, which came out in 1978.
“There is a house on Sunset Boulevard, and it’s an ugly white house now … it used to be a beautiful, white, classic home,” she said. “I went into the house several times. It had an unbelievable speakeasy that you got through under the staircase. … Anyway, the house was up for sale, and a young Arab couple bought it, and the wife filled the garden and filled the wall, which had these big urns on [it] originally, with plastic flowers.”
She continued: “It was so ridiculous, it made the news that somebody had put plastic flowers here. And people used to come down on the weekend, and the cars would slow, and they’d put plastic flowers [in the garden]. And this young Arab couple loved it, so then they got statues of women, naked, and painted them, painted nipples on and pubic hairs and all of that, so that the traffic would keep looking at their house. And it went all over America. And then they fell out, and the chauffeur set fire to the house and it burned down.”
“So, you made the correlation of like, ‘Oh, they struck oil in Hollywood because they turned the house into a spectacle,'” Jack then said to Sharon, which she affirmed.
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The Sheikettes released “You Can Strike Oil – In Hollywood” on Jet Records, the label founded by Sharon’s father, Don Arden (and which released Osbourne’s first two solo albums, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman). According to Discogs, the group also included Carol Connors, who co-wrote the Rocky theme song “Gonna Fly Now,” and a woman named Avril Giacobbi.
Jack, Kelly and Ozzy all agreed that the Sheikettes should reunite and play a show. (“It’s all about reunions, mum,” Kelly argued.) Sharon, however, was less convinced, telling her family, “I think you have lost the plot.”
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Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff
