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STORY BEHIND THE SONG
A lot of hit songs have been written from lines in movies or television programs and according to Bob McDill, Keith Whitley’s 1988 hit, “Don’t Close Your Eyes” was one of those tunes!
McDill commented, “That idea came from a Neil Simon play that was made into a movie titled “California Suite” with Maggie Smith and the English actor—I can’t think of his name. Anyway he plays a gay man who’s married to this gal and she’s about to win her first Oscar. They come to the awards ceremony and he’s involved in hustling some little boy at dinner. She’s learned to live with all of that. She wants him to make love to her that night and I was walking thru the room when my wife and my daughter were watching that movie when Maggie Smith said “hold me tonight and make love to me tonight and don’t close your eyes. Don’t pretend I’m somebody else. “ And I thought that was a great title. So that’s where that song came from.”
Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes” entered the country music charts April 30th, 1988 and made it to number one.
It was his 10th charted song and was on the charts for 23 weeks.
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