Stewart, Rod

Stewart, Rod, international star vocalist; b. High-gate, London, England, Jan. 10, 1945. A one-time member of several of the seminal British R&B-style bands of 1963–1966, Rod Stewart first gained recognition as the vocalist for the Jeff Beck Group in the late 1960s. Pursuing a solo recording career while performing and recording with the Faces, one of Britain’s finest rock bands of the 1970s, Stewart quickly eclipsed the group’s popularity with his Gasoline Alley album, arguably his finest, followed by Every Picture Tells a Story and the smash hit “Maggie May.” After four hitless years in the early 1970s, Stewart became an international star, regaining his commercial success, if little critical acclaim, by recording middle-of-the-road pop and disco material. He has managed to maintain success on the charts through the 1990s, despite his often uneven work on record and stage.

Rod Stewart, born to Scottish parents, attended the same secondary school as did Ray and Dave Davies (later of the Kinks), but dropped out of school at age 16. After working a variety of mundane jobs, he learned guitar and performed as a street singer in Spain and France for a number of months. Upon returning to England, he joined Jimmy Powell and the Five Dimensions as harmonica player; in 1963–1964 he led the group. In 1964 he recorded “Good Morning Little School Girl” for Decca on his own, and joined the R&B band the Hoochie Coochie Men, sharing lead vocals with British blues revivalist “Long” John Baldry. When the group disbanded in autumn 1965, Stewart joined Baldry’s Steampacket—which featured Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll—for a year before joining Shotgun Express, whose members included Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood (later of Fleetwood Mac).

In early 1967 Rod Stewart helped form the Jeff Beck Group with former Yardbirds lead guitarist Jeff Beck and bassist-guitarist Ron Wood. Their two albums, Truth and Beck-ola, served as foundations of the British blues movement and brought Stewart his first recognition. They became widely popular in the United States by means of numerous tours over the next two years, but the group fragmented in mid-1969.

Already signed as a solo artist to Mercury Records, Rod Stewart purused a parallel career with the Faces, which evolved out of the Small Faces and whose leader, Steve Marriott, had left the group to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton. Even before the Faces had recorded their debut album for Warner Bros., Mercury issued The Rod Stewart Album, which contained Mike D’Abo’s “Handbags and Gladrags” and the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man.” Recording his early solo albums with Wood, Ian McLagan, guitarist Martin Quittenton, and drummer Mickey Waller, Stewart overshadowed the career of the Faces beginning with 1970’s Gasoline Alley. The album included Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s “Country Comfort,” Stewart’s own “Lady Day,” and the title cut, by Stewart and Wood.

Developing an energetic and flashy stage act through successful American tours with the Faces beginning in 1970, Rod Stewart became an international star with Every Picture Tells a Story and its classic top-hit single, “Maggie May,” written by Stewart and Quittenton. The album also included Stewart’s beautiful “Mandolin Wind” and the major hit “(I Know) I’m Losing You,” a near-smash hit for the Temptations in 1966–1967. After scoring a major hit with Wood and Stewart’s “Stay with Me” by the Faces, Stewart’s Never a Dull Moment yielded a major hit with Quittenton and Stewart’s “You Wear It Well” and a moderate hit with Jimi Hendrix’s “Angel”; it also contained “I’d Rather Go Blind.” Stewart later became embroiled in legal disputes between Mercury and Warner Bros, that saw his next album, Smiler, delayed nearly a year. Ron Wood toured America with the Rolling Stones in 1975, and following the Faces’ subsequent U.S. tour, Rod Stewart announced his departure from the group in December.

Signing with Warner Bros, in spring 1975 and moving to Los Angeles, Rod Stewart recorded Atlantic Crossing in Muscle Shoals, Ala. The album seemed to mark a deterioration in the songwriting of Stewart. Nonetheless, his next album, A Night on the Town, yielded a top hit with “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” and major hits with Cat Stevens’s “The First Cut Is the Deepest” and the poignant “The Killing of Geòrgie.” Stewart conducted a massive worldwide tour in 1976–1977. His next album, Foot Loose and Fancy Free, produced the smash hit “You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)” and major hits with “I Was Only Joking” and the disco-style “Hot Legs.” By then an international celebrity, Stewart again mounted a marathon world tour in support of Blondes Have More Fun, which included the facile top pop and smash R&B hit “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” and the major pop hit “Ain’t Love a Bitch.”

Foolish Behaviour continued Rod Stewart’s reliance on formulaic songs and confirmed his artistic decline. Although his live performances devolved into self-parody, he nonetheless remained a popular concert attraction and singles artist. “Passion” and “Young Turks” became smash hits, and “Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me)” and “Baby Jane” became major hits. He seemed to pull out of his descent into mediocrity with 1984’s Camouflage and resulting tour, thanks to his reunion with Jeff Beck, but the guitarist rescued only “Infatuation” from the album (it produced a second near-smash with the Persuaders’ “Some Guys Have All the Luck”), and he left the tour after only seven shows. The banal love song “Love Touch” became a smash hit when used as the theme to the movie Legal Eagles. Out of Order (1988) yielded four major hits: “Lost in You,” “Forever Young,” “My Heart Can’t Tell Her No” (a smash hit), and “Crazy About Her”; the album went on to sell two million copies.

The Rod Stewart anthology set Storyteller produced smash pop and top easy-listening hits with Tom Waits’s “Downtown Train” and the Motown standard “This Old Heart of Mine,” recorded with Ronnie Isley. He payed further tribute to Motown with the near-smash “The Motown Song” from Vagabond Heart, which also produced the smash hit “Rhythm of My Heart” and a major hit with Robbie Robertson’s “Broken Arrow.” In 1993 Stewart toured with a large string section and performed on the MTV series Unplugged, reuniting with ex-bandmate Ron Wood. The album derived from the MTV performance, Unplugged … and Seated, yielded a smash pop and top easy-listening hit with Van Morrison’s “Have I Told You Lately” and a major pop hit with Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe,” a song he originally recorded in 1971. In 1994 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Stewart’s free 1994–1995 New Year’s concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, drew an estimated 3.5 million fans, establishing an attendance record for an open-air concert. A Spanner in the Works (1995) followed the semiacoustic style of the MTV show and was his final album for Warner Bros.

Discography

ROD STEWART AND STEAMPACKET : R. S. and Steampacket (1976). the jeff beck group : Truth (1968); Beck-ola (1969); Truth/Beck-ola (1975). THE FACES :First step (1970); Long Player (1971); A Nod Is as Good as a Wink … To a Blind Horse (1971); Ooh La La (1973); Snakes and Ladders: Best (1976). rod stewart and the faces : Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners (1973); R. S. and the Faces (1975). rod stewart : The R. S. Album (1969); Gasoline Alley (1970); Every Picture Tells a Story (1971); Never a Dull Moment (1972); Sing It Again, Rod (1973); Smiler (1974); Best (1976); Best, Vol. 2 (1977); Atlantic Crossing (1975); A Night on the Town (1976); Foot Loose and Fancy Free (1977); Blondes Have More Fun (1978); Greatest Hits (1979); Foolish Behaviour (1980); Tonight I’m Yours (1981); Absolutely Live (1982); Body Wishes (1983); Camouflage (1984); R. S. (1986); Out of Order (1988); Storyteller: The Complete Anthology, 1964–1990 (1989); Downtown Train: Selections from the “Storyteller” Anthology (1990); Vagabond Heart (1991); The Mercury Anthology (1992); You Wear It Well (1992); Vintage (1993); Unplugged … and Seated (1993); A Spanner in the Works (1995); A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (1976); Rod the Mod (1981).

Bibliography

J. Pidgeon, R. S. and the Changing Faces (St. Albans, 1976); G. Tremlett, The R. S. Story (London, 1976); T. Ewbank, R. S.: A Biography (London, 1992).

—Brock Helander