ROD STEWART

Born: Roderick David Stewart; in Highgate, North London, England, 10 January 1945

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Unplugged . . . and Seated (1993)

Hit songs since 1990: "Rhythm of My Heart," "Have I Told You Lately," "Leave Virginia Alone"

Outstanding singing talent made Rod Stewart a major presence among contemporary rock singers; his charismatic appeal both on and off the stage made him a sex symbol. Stewart accomplished a successful transition from 1960s heavy rock into 1970s mainstream pop, although it came at some cost as he faced criticism for abandoning his talent to play too heavily on his heartthrob image. Nevertheless, in his later years Stewart found a more serious audience, fitting his very recognizable voice into a variety of adult-pop genres, including jazz standards.

From Hot Rod to Mod Rod

As the youngest child of five in a blue-collar London family, Stewart was a promising soccer player and nearly turned professional in the sport. Stewart also did a stint as a gravedigger while pursuing music with several local club bands. English blues legend Long John Baldry heard Stewart playing the harmonica in 1964 and asked him to join his band. He knocked around over the next two years

with Baldry's Steampacket, gaining a reputation as a talented rhythm and blues singer with a unique voice. In 1967, he and guitarist Ron Wood, who reluctantly switched to bass guitar, joined guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck to form the hard rock-based Jeff Beck Group. Beck's reputation was already huge, Stewart's was growing, and the same could be said for their egos. Stewart's vocals took a backseat to Beck's guitar playing, although the two albums they recorded, Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola (1969), are rock classics. The Jeff Beck Group gets credit for initiating rock's trend of pairing an energetic lead singer with a hot guitar player. While Beck recovered from a severe car accident in 1969, Stewart and Wood left the band to join Small Faces, whose name was shortened to Faces. They quickly earned a reputation as a working-class party rock band. Meanwhile, Stewart also embarked on a solo career, which he juggled while remaining in Faces. His third solo album, Every Picture Tells a Story (1971), contained the megahit, "Maggie May," and another hit, "I'm Losing You," and went to number one in both Britain and the United States. His next album, Never a Dull Moment (1972), contained another big hit, "You Wear It Well." Stewart had reached superstar status, but he stayed with Faces, recording five albums until he left them in 1976, by which time his solo career had overshadowed the band's.

Stewart's stage style is distinctive in its athletic and boundless energy. He weaves and bobs, electrifying audiences with a cocky strut, effusive handclaps, and a mischievous charm. He is one of an exclusive group of rock lead singers—Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Paul Rodgers, Steven Tyler, and the late Freddie Mercury among them—who combine visceral stage theatrics with throaty, expressive, yet tuneful vocals. Stewart's voice is bluesy and high with an inimitable raspy hoarseness. It is a consummate rock voice but also supports ballads such as "Maggie May" and "Tonight's the Night" as well as chart-topping pop/rock romps like "Hot Legs" and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy."

After leaving Faces, Stewart also left England to escape the high taxes. He settled in Los Angeles, where his popularity grew, in part because of his jet-setting with movie stars and models. His next release, A Night on the Town (1976), went platinum, and his following release, Foot Loose and Fancy Free (1977), went triple platinum. These and subsequent albums put more emphasis on a pop sound and contained less of the blues/rock that earlier drew Stewart vast critical praise. He reached a celebrity zenith in 1979 with the brash, disco-influenced mega-hit, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" from Blondes Have More Fun (1978).

Proving the Critics Wrong

Singers who made their mark in the golden era of rock/blues from 1965 to 1975 faced dizzying music trend changes over the next fifteen years: punk rock and disco in the mid 1970s; New Wave shortly after; the heavy-metal explosion of the 1980s; and synthesized pop and hip-hop of the late 1980s. Those who survived, as Stewart did, either continually reinvented themselves and/or fused with one or several of these styles. Stewart entered the 1980s by emphasizing more pop and new-wave styles into his sound. The album Tonight I'm Yours (1981) sold well, but Stewart's next efforts were not as successful and prompted talk that Stewart was getting too old for the "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" routine. By the middle 1980s he was mired in the first slump of his fruitful career. It revived in 1989 with his rendition of a Tom Waits song, "Downtown Train," which became a hit and brought Stewart his first Grammy Award nomination.

Stewart began the 1990s by releasing a career retrospective, Storyteller, the Complete Anthology: 1964–1990 (1990). The fifty-song, four-CD set reminded both fans and skeptics that he had amassed a formidable body of work and that he was more than just a celebrity pop star. The album also seemed to focus him in a more mature, seasoned vein, and his career began to edge forward. His next release, Vagabond Heart (1991), left behind some of the excess trappings of the previous decade and displayed Stewart once again as a masterful song interpreter. The album features his version of Van Morrison's ballad "Have I Told You Lately" and features guest work by Tina Turner on "It Takes Two."

In 1993, Stewart reunited with Ron Wood to take part in MTV's show Unplugged. The appropriately named album from the concert, Unplugged . . . and Seated (1993), was another boost for Stewart's career revival. It contains acoustic versions of Stewart's biggest hits as he and Wood sat on stools during the subdued concert setting; it was difficult, however, for the effervescent singer to remain seated through some of the numbers. His renditions of classics such as "Stay with Me," "Handbags and Gladrags," "Mandolin Wind," and his chestnut, "Maggie May," reminded anyone who may have forgotten that Stewart is an expressive song interpreter; the acoustic format allowed him to find even deeper meanings in his signature material. In addition, he and Wood appeared to have a rollicking good time, giving a scaled down glimpse of their camaraderie from their days in Faces. Unplugged . . . and Seated was both a critical and commercial success—triple platinum—and the year following its release Stewart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Stewart maintained an affinity to balladry with his sweet sandpapery vocals on his next studio release, Spanner in the Works (1995). The album's title is a British expression whose meaning is akin to the American saying, "a fly in the ointment." It contains the hit single, "Leave Virginia Alone," which was written by Tom Petty. Stewart also added Tom Waits's song "Hang on St. Christopher," Bob Dylan's "Sweetheart Like You," and the powerfully sweeping "This" to the album's twelve songs. Stewart followed the album's release with a world concert tour and brought a twenty-two-piece orchestra in addition to his twelve-piece band.

In an effort to link today's new generation rock with his Faces-era sound, Stewart recorded When We Were the New Boys (1998). The album took his audience in a direction they had not seen for years as he dropped the twenty-two-piece orchestra and rekindled the electricity of his earlier days. However, he returned to the adult-pop that had given him so much success already with the release of Human (2001).

In his quest to keep fostering success with warmer, more accessible music, Stewart recorded It Had to be You . . . The Great American Songbook (2002), a collection of American standards from the 1930s and 1940s. Stewart had secretly admired and longed to sing this classic music since his "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" days. Sales of the record have reached 3 million, and a sequel was planned for release in 2003.

Critics were tough on Stewart in the late 1970s for the alleged abandonment of his abundant skills as a song interpreter for blander commercial formats. Yet as other singers from his era keep trying to relight the flame of their early brilliance, Stewart seems content to let that go and mature gracefully. His talent has always been his ability to put a unique touch on any music that he sings.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (Mercury, 1969); Gasoline Alley (Mercury, 1970) Every Picture Tells a Story (Mercury, 1971); Never a Dull Moment (Mercury, 1972); Sing It Again, Rod (Mercury, 1973); Smiler (Mercury, 1974); Atlantic Crossing (Warner Bros., 1975); A Night on the Town (Warner Bros., 1976); Foot Loose & Fancy Free (Warner Bros., 1977); Blondes Have More Fun (Warner Bros., 1978); Tonight I'm Yours (Warner Bros., 1981); Camouflage (Warner Bros., 1984); Out of Order (Warner Bros., 1988); Storyteller, the Complete Anthology: 1964–1990 (Warner Bros., 1990); Vagabond Heart (Warner Bros., 1991); Unplugged . . . and Seated (Warner Bros., 1993); Spanner in the Works (Warner Bros., 1995); When We Were the New Boys (Warner Bros., 1998); Human (Atlantic, 2001); It Had to Be You . . . The Great American Songbook (J. Records, 2002). With the Jeff Beck Group: Truth (Epic, 1968); Beck-ola (Epic, 1969). With Faces: The First Step (Warner Bros., 1970); A Nod Is as Good as a Wink . . . to a Blind Horse (Warner Bros., 1971); Ooh la La (Warner Bros., 1973).

donald lowe