Rod Stewart, The #28 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Two

 

(Continued from Part One)

 

In 1976, Stewart released the album A Night on the Town which included the single "Tonight's The Night", a #1 smash for eight weeks in the United States, one which went Gold, and another of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

 

Cat Stevens wrote this great song which has been covered by many artists, including Sheryl Crow.  Rod Stewart recorded arguably the best version of "The First Cut Is The Deepest", which reached #3 on the Adult chart and #21 overall in the U.S. and #11 in the U.K.

 

"The Killing Of Georgie" is about the murder of a gay man and was one of the first songs to deal with the subject of the sickness of homophobia.  "That was a true story about a gay friend of the Faces, Stewart told Mojo in May of 1995.

 

Rod followed with the album Foot Loose & Fancy Free, which reached #2.   "You're In My Heart" jumped to #2 in Canada and Australia, #2 in New Zealand and Ireland, #3 in the U.K. and #4 in the United States.  Britt Ekland, Stewart's girlfriend at the time, told this story:

     We went out to dinner with a bunch of friends one 

     night to St. Germaine's one of the poshest

     restaurants in Los Angeles.  In the middle of the

     meal, Rod leaned over to me and whispered, "I've 

     written a song for you."  No one took any notice as

     Rod softly sang the words into my ear.  My eyes

     filled with tears.  It was the loveliest song I had ever 

     heard.

   

Stewart released "Hot Legs" as his next single, with help from Carmine Appice, former drummer of Vanilla Fudge and a recent addition to Stewart's backing band.  It reached #4 in Germany and Ireland and #5 in the U.K. but was underrated at #28 in the United States.

  

"I Was Only Joking" is about the regrets a person feels when they didn't reach their potential.  It peaked at #5 in the U.K. and #22 in the U.S.

 Stewart achieved another transcontinental #1 with "Do Ya' Think I'm Sexy", the lead single from the album Blondes Have More Fun.  "I think it's one of those songs that everyone can remember what they were doing in that particular year," Stewart told Mojo in May of 1995.  "It was one of the 10 songs that summed up that whole Disco period.  And that's what music's about surely, to bring back memories."  Rod donated all proceeds from the song to UNICEF.

 

The album also reached #1 and has sold over three million copies.  In 1980, Stewart released the album Foolish Behaviour, which yielded the single "Passion".  It hit #2 in Canada, #4 in Switzerland, #5 in the U.S. and the Netherlands, #6 in Ireland and #7 in New Zealand.

  

Rod released the album Tonight I'm Yours in 1981.  "Tonight I'm Yours (Don't Hurt Me)", written by Stewart, his guitarist Jim Cregan and keyboardist Kevin Savigar, reached #2 in Canada, #6 in Australia, #8 in the U.K., #9 in Switzerland and #10 in Sweden.

Rod wrote the lyrics to "Young Turks", with Appice and keyboardists Duane Hitchings and Savigar working on the music.  Appice told Songfacts about how the sound came about: 

     Rod was always trying to be on the cutting edge at

     that time, so we did drum machine stuff. Duane had 

     just gotten a sequencer, so we started screwing 

     around and came up with the chords and melodies. 

     We presented it to Rod. This one was easy

     because we used the whole concept that we came up 

     with. We just transferred it from the 8-track that 

     Duane had going right onto the 24-track. We used 

     the drum machine and everything. Once we gave 

    Rod the music, he wrote the lyrics.

But on Rod's 1983 album Body Wishes, "Baby Jane" was the best effort at #14.

Stewart was in the biggest slump of his career.  He not only turned that around; he was one of the most successful artists in the remainder of the decade.  Join us for Part Three!