Rod Stewart part 2

Our last meeting with Rod Stewart ended at a turning point in his career; the Faces had imploded, and Rod had left his old record company for a bigger one, and, more importantly, for career as well as taxation reasons, he had moved to the US. His first US album, however, consolidated his status as a British superstar rather than endear him more to the Americans.

In 1975, Stewart moved to Los Angeles. He released the Atlantic Crossing album for his new record company, using producer Tom Dowd and a different sound based on the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Atlantic Crossing marked both a return to form and a return to the Top 10 of the Billboard album charts (#9). It was also his fifth #1 album in a row in the UK. It was also #1 in Australia and Norway, #2 in the Netherlands, #5 in Sweden, #11 in Germany, #18 in Spain, #21 in Canada, and #23 in Italy.

The first single was Sailing; written by Gavin Sutherland, it was a #54 UK almost-hit for the Sutherland Brothers. For our boy Rod, it was a monster hit in Europe, South Africa and Oceania, selling over a million copies in England alone, where it charted twice; it spent 4 weeks at #1 in September 1975, then charted again exactly a year later, peaking at #3. It charted for a third time in 1987, peaking at #41. Its peak positions in other countries were: #1 in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway. #2 in Australia, South Africa and Switzerland. #3 in New Zealand and #4 in Germany. For whatever reason, it failed to connect in America and Canada and stalled out at Number 58. For that reason, he rarely plays it stateside. When he plays it in other countries, however, the crowd sings along to every word. 

The next single was also a cover, Rod's version of the Isley Brothers classic, This Old Heart Of Mine. The original peaked at #12 in the US Hot 100 and at #6 in the US R&B chart. In the UK it peaked at #3 in 1968. Stewart's remake, like Sailing, also failed to make an impression in America. It was, however, a big hit in the UK (#4) and in Ireland (#3).

This is the 1989 version that he recorded as a duet with Ronald Isley of the Isley Brothers. This wasn't a big hit anywhere but the US, where it peaked at #10.

Finally from this album, Danny Whitten's composition, I Don't Want to Talk About It, first recorded by his band Crazy Horse in 1971. Rod's version wasn't released as a single right away, but when it was it became a hit; a double A-sided hit that hit #1 in the UK in 1977, and a Top 50 hit in the US Hot 100 in early 1980. This is the studio version:

This is a good live version:

In early 1976 Stewart covered The Beatles' song Get Back for the musical documentary All This and World War II. His version made #10 in Sweden and #11 in the UK.

His next album, A Night On The Town, released in 1976, did it for him; it was a good album, 45% of the songs were Stewart-penned - the rest were mainly remarkable cover versions. It was Rod's 6th consecutive #1 album in the UK. His next studio album to hit the top there would come in 2013. It was also #1 in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Norway. In the US it barely missed the top, peaking at #2. It also made #5 in the Netherlands, #23 in Japan and #29 in Germany. The album achieved multiple-platinum status.

The song that propelled the album's success, especially in the US, was lead single Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright), the ultimate seduction song of the mid 70s. The song, which contains lines like "Spread your wings and let me come inside", as well as a sexy French spoken part from Britt Ekland, the Swedish actress who was Stewart's girlfriend at the time, spent 8 weeks at the top of the US chart, making it the best-selling single of 1977 in the United States. It was also #1 in Canada, and went Top 5 in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and the Netherlands.

Some listeners have interpreted the song as an incestuous pedophile's successful seduction of his daughter. Stewart's persona explicitly refers to his partner as his "virgin child," and among her French comments at the end, she asks, "What is Mama going to say?" The implication that she is a minor appears visually in the video when he begins to offer her a glass of wine, but rescinds it and drinks the glass himself, waving her off as if she is too young to partake. I think that's overthinking it; however the video, by today's standards, is cheesy and slightly creepy.

His next single from this album is the song that's the main reason for Rod's inclusion in our narrative: The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II) tells the story of a gay man. Stewart is cast as the narrator, while the eponymous Georgie is a gay man, a friend of the narrator's. The song follows Georgie through his life.

When Georgie reveals his sexuality to his parents his father asks, "How can my son not be straight, after all I've said and done for him?" Georgie, cast out by his parents, heads for New York City where he becomes successful and popular in Manhattan's upper class, "the toast of the Great White Way". The narrator visits him in Summer 1975, when Georgie tells him he's in love; the narrator is pleased for him. Georgie attends the opening night of a Broadway musical, but has no interest in lingering afterward so he leaves "before the final curtain call" and heads crosstown. He is attacked near East 53rd Street by a New Jersey gang of thieves that was waiting in a car on a "darkened side street" and one thief inadvertently kills him. The narrator remembers Georgie's advice on living life to the full while young, before it ends. The song ends with the narrator begging Georgie to stay.

In the May 1995 issue of Mojo, Stewart explained: "That was a true story about a gay friend of The Faces. He was especially close to me and Mac. But he was knifed or shot, I can't remember which. That was a song I wrote totally on me own over the chord of open E." The switchblade knife in the song's lyrics implies that Georgie was stabbed to death.

When he was asked about writing a song with a gay theme, Stewart said, "It's probably because I was surrounded by gay people at that stage. I had a gay PR man, a gay manager. Everyone around me was gay. I don't know whether that prompted me into it or not. I think it was a brave step, but it wasn't a risk. You can't write a song like that unless you've experienced it. But it was a subject that no one had approached before. And I think it still stands up today."

Part I covers terrain similar to Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed and also uses sampling of melody and backing vocals. Part II provides a coda to the song and employs a melody identical to The Beatles' Don't Let Me Down. In a 1980 interview, John Lennon said, "the lawyers never noticed".

This beautiful song was a #2 hit in the UK. It charted moderately well elsewhere, reaching #25 in the Netherlands, #30 in the US, #33 in Canada, #36 in Germany and #38 in Australia.

His excellent cover version of Cat Stevens' The First Cut Is The Deepest was the other side of the double A-sided hit that, combined with I Don't Want to Talk About It, occupied the top spot for 4 weeks in the UK. The song also had successful cover versions by P. P. Arnold, Keith Hampshire and Sheryl Crow.

There's an interesting story concerning this single: its last week at #1 was the week that the Sex Pistols released God Save The Queen. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977. The record's lyrics, as well as the cover, were controversial at the time, and both the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority refused to play the song. The song was an attack on the treatment of working-class people in England in the 1970s by the government.

The song reached #1 on the NME charts in the United Kingdom, and made it to #2 on the official UK Singles Chart as used by the BBC. This led to accusations by some that the charts had been "fixed" to prevent the song from reaching #1. These rumors persisted for years, "ruining" Stewart's claim to his 4th week at the top. There was a recount rather recently, however, and it seems that Stewart had indeed sold more copies than the Sex Pistols that fateful week. The single was also #1 in Germany and the Netherlands, #4 in Ireland, #5 in New Zealand, #11 in Canada and #21 in the US.

A short editorial on cover versions: For a teenager in the 70s, like I was, music wasn't always within our reach, especially older songs. So, my first contact with songs like Pretty Flamingo and Trade Winds happened through Rod Stewart's interpretation. I was thus motivated to look deeper in the history of each song, later, when music was more available to me. This is also true of many other songs that were covered by many other artists in the 70s. These songs were part of my learning experience. Here's Pretty Flamingo:

... And here's Trade Winds:

His next album, Foot Loose & Fancy Free (1977), was the beginning of change in Stewart's career, and not necessarily in a good way. Till then he released albums that ranged from good to great, and a number of amazing singles. From this point on, his singles would still be good (occasionally very good), but his albums would effectively be the singles plus unremarkable filler tracks. It would take him 25 years to reinvent himself as an albums' artist, with the Great American Songbook album series.

The album was almost as successful as his last one (#1 in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, #2 in the US, #3 in the UK, #6 in Sweden and Norway), but the critics were not convinced. He did however have three big hit singles off it. The first was the sappy but effective love ballad You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim). This gentle ode to the "the big bosomed lady with the dutch accent" hit #4 on the US Hot 100 in 1978. It was also a #1 hit in Canada and Australia, #2 in Ireland and New Zealand, #3 in the UK and #8 in the Netherlands. He was singing about his girlfriend Brett Ekland, declaring that his love for her was "immeasurable" even though "the attraction was purely physical." They broke up about a year later. 

Hot Legs was the next single, a Rolling Stones-esque rocker about a woman with great legs that randomly shows up at 3:45 am to surprise Rod Stewart with some late-night sex. "Hot legs, you can scream and shout/Hot legs, are you still in school?", he sings. That last one is a very pertinent question, but he doesn't seem to be waiting for an answer before getting down to business. Things were different in the 1970s.

The single fared better in the UK (#5) than in the US (#28).

I Was Only Joking was the album's best song. Coming at the end of the album, the song seems like a justification for the uninspired, by-the-book record that preceded it. It was a bigger international hit than Hot Legs, but not as big as You're in My Heart.

In 1978, Rod Stewart's disco album was released, which included one of his biggest hits ever. The album was Blondes Have More Fun; it was his trashiest, most disposable album, but also one of his most enjoyable records, even if all the pleasures are guilty. The album hit the top of the charts in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. It peaked at #2 in Norway and Japan and at #3 in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

The album's biggest hit single was its first. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? was a fun track, in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. When asked why did he go disco, his answer was "McCartney and the Stones did it too." He was highly compensated for his "rock treason". The song was a #1 hit all over the world (US, UK, Canada, Australia, Spain and Portugal), #2 in France, New Zealand and Norway, #3 in Italy and Belgium, #4 in the Netherlands, #5 in Ireland, #8 in Switzerland and Austria and #9 in Germany and Finland.

Folow-up Ain't Love a Bitch was a much lesser hit: #4 in Germany, #5 in Ireland, #11 in the UK and #22 in the US.

Here's another "guilty pleasure" track: Attractive Female Wanted.

Except for music, money and women, Rod's other big love was football (or as our American friends call it, soccer). He is a big fan of the Scottish FC, Celtic, as well as Scotland's national team, which in 1978 went to the FIFA World Cup in Argentina with high hopes. Rod was there, cheering them on. For more support, he recorded, with a little help from the players themselves, Ole Ola, a single that peaked at #4 in the UK.

He released a greatest hits collection in 1979, which went to #1 in the UK, Australia and New Zealand and #22 in the US, and was back with a studio album in 1980. Foolish Behaviour was less inspired and less successful than the previous one, but it did contain a #5 US hit called Passion.

1981's Tonight I'm Yours was his best album in 5 years. It has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, and contained two great singles. First came the title track, a #1 in the Netherlands, #2 in Canada,  #6 in Australia, #8 in the UK, #9 in Switzerland, #10 in Sweden, #16 in Ireland and #20 in the US.

Young Turks is one of my favorite Stewart tracks from the 80s. The track showed Stewart with a new synthpop and new wave sound. The term Young Turk, which originates from the same-named secular nationalist reform party of the early 20th century, is slang for a rebellious youth who acts contrary to what is deemed normal by society. The phrase "Young Turks" is never heard in the actual song, the chorus instead centering on the phrase "young hearts be free tonight", leading to the song frequently being misidentified as "Young Hearts" or "Young Hearts Be Free".

The song was a second #1 in a row in the Netherlands, #2 in Canada,  #3 in Australia, #5 in the US, and #11 in the UK. The video is very 80s; I love it.

How Long?, a remake of the 70s hit by Ace, made #2 in Germany and #6 in Ireland.

A live album followed in 1982, called Absolutely Live. From it, it's worth listening to the rendition of his biggest hit with the Faces, Stay With Me, with Tina Turner and Kim Carnes sharing vocal duties.

Body Wishes (1983) was another album whose only worthy songs were its two singles. Baby Jane is another of my favorite Stewart songs in the 80s: To date, the song has remained as the 6th and final UK #1 single for Stewart. It was also #1 in Germany and Ireland, #2 in Switzerland, #3 in Sweden, #9 in the Netherlands and #10 in Australia. In the US, the song was also a big hit, peaking at #14.

The follow-up, What Am I Gonna Do (I'm So In Love with You), peaked at #2 in Ireland, #3 in the UK and Switzerland, #9 in Germany and #35 in the US.

Camouflage's (1984) lead single was Infatuation. A big hit in the US (#6) but a lesser hit everywhere else:

Some Guys Have All the Luck, the follow-up single, is a song written by Jeff Fortgang, which has been a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 twice, first by The Persuaders in 1973 reaching #39, then by our man Rod in 1984, whose version hit #10 (also #11 in Ireland and #15 in the UK). It was also a UK hit two more times: before Rod there was Robert Palmer and after Rod came Maxi Priest.

One of the most well-known covers of the classic People Get Ready (originally by the Impressions) is by Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart in 1985.

In 1986 came Every Beat of My Heart. The lead single, Love Touch, was big in the States (#6). Mike Chapman, Holly Knight and Gene Black were the song's writers.

The follow-up, Every Beat of My Heart, a Stewart-Savigar composition, was big in the UK and Ireland (#2 in both).

Out of Order was released in 1988 and My Heart Can't Tell You No was its most successful single (New Zealand #1, Ireland #2, US #4).

In 1989 came the single CD The Best of Rod Stewart, which was not released in the US and the 4-CD Storyteller – The Complete Anthology: 1964–1990, which was. They were both hugely successful. They contained two songs that were not found in any studio albums: His duet with Ronald Isley, This Old Heart Of Mine, which we've already heard, and his version of the Tom Waits masterpiece Downtown Train. Rod's version did justice to the song and it was appreciated: it peaked at #3 in the US and at #10 in the UK.

With Vagabond Heart (1991), Stewart gave us his first very good album in a while. The lead single in Europe and Australia was a duet with Tina Turner; a cover of the Motown classic It Takes Two. It was a big hit in Europe:

The worldwide lead single was Rhythm of My Heart. A #1 hit in Canada and Ireland and a Top 5 hit in the US, UK, Germany and Austria, it presented Rod in good singing form.

The Motown Song was another good single as well as a big hit.

His heartfelt version of Robbie Robertson's (of The Band) Broken Arrow made #20 in the US.

Tom Traubert's Blues (Waltzing Matilda) was a #6 UK hit in 1992:

In 1995 he released his own MTV unplugged. Van Morrison's Have I Told You Lately was released as a single and reached the Top 5 in the US as well as in the UK.

A few months later, he joined Sting and Bryan Adams in All For Love, which appeared at The Three Musketeers Soundtrack. It was a huge international hit, reaching platinum status in the US, as well as elsewhere.

We fast-forward to 2002. Rod had changed labels once again; this time he signed for J Records, Clive Davis' new label. Davis, the bisexual music industry mogul, who brought Whitney Houston and Barry Manilow to prominence, among others, suggested that Rod tackle with the great American songs from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Rod gave it a try - and It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook was born. It returned Rod in the Top 10 of the major markets and to platinum record sales. It became the first in a five-volume series, each more successful than the previous one. From that first one, here's These Foolish Things:

From the second one, in 2003, here's the classic from Casablanca, As Time Goes By, a duet with Queen Latifah.

From the third one, in 2004, here's one of my ten favorite songs of all-time, as performed by Nat King Cole: Stardust. Here's Rod's version.

From the fourth one, in 2005, here's Oscar-winning Thanks for the Memory.

From the fifth one, in 2010, here's another Oscar-winning song, Moon River.

In the meantime, he found the time to revisit rock classics in 2005. From that album, here's CCR's Have You Ever Seen the Rain?.

In 2009 he paid homage to soul. Here he is with the master blaster himself, Stevie Wonder, in My Cherie Amour.

Rod Stewart is still doing gigs and releasing albums. His last studio album came out in 2015, more than 50 years after his first recording and peaked at #2 in the UK, where it was certified as platinum. It also made the Top 20 in most major markets, including the US. Say what you will, the man is timeless.

Not that people didn't have nasty things to say. Music critic Greil Marcus was very harsh with what he considered Stewart's sellout to mainstream popularity: "Rarely has a singer had as full and unique a talent as Rod Stewart; rarely has anyone betrayed his talent so completely. Once the most compassionate presence in music, he has become a bilious self-parody – and sells more records than ever."

However, I would like to finish this with Rod's own words, in a recent interview: "All I want out of life is my wife, my kids and a career that I am always thankful for. I'm like a kid, waiting for when I can start singing for an audience. There's a lot more to my world, but that's what I live for."

Well Rod, it's been nice to follow you for all these years...