| Rod Stewart
Rod.
One name.
A lifetime of music.
After all the chart-topping hits.
After all the sold out concerts.
After all encore fades and the houselights go up... The name remains the same.
Rod Stewart. His music is the soundtrack to our lives: Where were you the first time you heard "Tonight's The Night?" When was the first time you danced to "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" Who did you first take to a Rod Stewart concert?
For nearly twenty-five years, Rod has been there...The voice. The hair. The savior faire. And, like that album title from so long ago, there's "Never A Dull Moment." From his early Scottish roots, transplanted to Swinging London's rough and tumble underground, to a career that gives fresh new meaning to Blue-Eyed Soul: through a history-making catalog of classic songs, to a place in the pantheon of genuine musical legends: Rod Stewart has survived. And thrived.
And made it sound easy. His gift for song...his infinitely expressive voice...his sly wit and electrifying stage presence, have earned Rod Stewart a place in the hearts, and lives, of his millions of fans worldwide. His music brings them together, sharing the memories, the moments and the magic that have always been Rod Stewart.
"Maggie May." "Tonight's The Night." "Handbags & Gladrags." "Mandolin Wind." "Stay With Me." "First Cut Is The Deepest." "You're In My Heart." "Young Turks." "Infatuation." "Reason To Believe." "My Heart Can't Tell You No." "Downtown Train." "Have I Told You Lately." They're more than songs. They're milestones, marking a career that charted the changes even as it set musical standards still unmatched.
With each new triumph, Rod the man and his music, has kept a quality all his own. It's that indescribable something that writers and critics have tried so hard, for so long, to describe. "We begin with the voice," wrote Rolling Stone Magazine. "It is rife with emotion. We accept it to be one of music's finest introspective instruments...we hear pain, nuance and wisdom." It's a quality, wrote The New York Times "that is precisely what separates the rockers for whom rock and roll is not just a medium but a calling... Rod Stewart is a rocker."
What they're trying to say is that Rod's got style...always has. From the cut of his silk suit to his passion for soccer and preference for blondes, Rod Stewart is in a class by himself.
And through it all, the same surprising humble guy, with the rooster cut and roguish smile, remains the same. Talent and taste, class and the common touch. Like the songs says "Some Guys Have All The Luck."
Roderick David Stewart's lucky streak began in the early sixties when he first strolled onto the London club scene, singing for such bands as Long John Baldry, Streampacket and Shotgun Express...legendary names in the British rock's hall of fame.
Rods way with blues, RB and the folk music of his homeland made for a heady musical brew. Add to it the rock solid refrains of Jeff Beck and the Faces and the rest is history. From 1968 to 1970, he fronted both Beck's band and his Mod mates the Faces on such great essential albums as Truth, Beck-Ola, Long Player and A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse.
But it was when he stepped out on his own, as a solo artist, that Rod turned the world on its ear with a sound that was simply, splendidly Rod. From the opening notes of "Street Fighting Man," the first track on his 1969 debut long player, The Rod Stewart Album, it was clear that rock 'n' roll would never be the same. Here was an artist who made each song uniquely his own, marking him, according to one critic "as an innovator in rock singing technique and an effective reviver of several neglected musical directions."
But Rod has always been more than a technician, a reviver. And on his next release, Gasoline Alley, he proved it. Here was music from the heart, that got to the heart of the matter.
Then, in 1971, came Every Picture Tells A Story, and suddenly everyone's favorite musical secret was an instant phenomenon, thanks to the international number one hit, "Maggie May."
It was trend that would continue with Never A Dull Moment and a song that would become a signature for the young singer and songwriter: "You Wear It Well."
And, indeed, Rod does. Even as he went on to record a string of landmark albums, including Sing it Again, Rod, Smiler and Atlantic Crossing, Rod lept nimbly from the studio to the stage, establishing a worldwide reputation as a concert artist who gives it all... and then some. Of his performance style, one writer raved, "His voice is one of rock 'n' soul's great instruments. He sings emotion at such an elemental level words are almost unnecessary." Yet Rod makes each word count, too. According to another critic, he "projects all the passion or irony or hurt that belongs to each set of lyrics."
Words and melody. Style and substance. High times and heartbreak. Rod brought them all together and the hits just kept on coming. From 1976's A Night On The Town, he turned in the romantic revelation "Tonight's The Night." From 1977's Footloose & Fancy Free came the sexy, scorching "Hot Legs" and the simple sincerity of "You're In My Heart." Then he kicked it all into high gear with 1978's Blondes Have More Fun and the song that taught the world to strut; "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy."
Like a custom-fit pair of alligator shoes, the Eighties likewise belonged to Rod. 1980's Foolish Behavior yielded yet another Top Five hit, the torrid "Passion." 1982's Tonight I'm Yours weighed in with the hit title track and the sassy "Young Turks." Absolutely Live (1982), his deluxe in-concert set, captured twenty years of Stewart standards while the contagious Body Wishes (1983) was followed by Camouflage and a pair of back-to-back smashes: "Infatuation" and "Some Guys Have All The Luck." Small wonder that following the release of Out Of Order (1989) with its hit single, "My Heart Can't Tell You No," Rod received the Grammy and coveted Living Legend Award.
But Rod's legend has a way of living on. In 1990 came Storyteller, an incredible retrospective collection, featuring sixty-five cuts spanning his entire career. The lavish package garnered some chart-topping gems of its own, including the propulsive "Downtown Train." Meanwhile, the album Vagabond Heart and the smash duet with Ronald Isley, "This Old Heart of Mine," got Rod's third decade in music off to a great start.
Rod continued to open new chapters to his stellar career when he released It Had To Be You...The Great American Songbook in 2002. The great American songbook concept began with Rod Stewart himself who brought the idea to legendary music man Clive Davis. Upon the very first listen to the early demos, a deal to bring Rod into the J Records family was instantly signed in February 2002.
The album, a collection of cherished pop standards, literally took the world by storm. Debuting at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart, it fast became one of the hottest album of the year, earning a Grammy nomination, selling nearly 4 million copies worldwide and creating a demand for a second volume.
Now, Rod Stewart is ready to set forth As Time Goes By...The Great American Songbook: Volume II. Produced again by luminaries Richard Perry, Phil Ramone and Clive Davis, Volume II consists of 14 all-timers such as "I'm In The Mood For Love," "Smile," "As Time Goes By," "I Only Have Eyes For You," "Someone To Watch Over Me," "Til' There Was You," and a delicious duet with Cher on "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered," with the almost-never-heard original sexy lyrics.
It Had To Be You...The Great American Songbook was Rod's first foray into the world of pop standards. With his trademark voice, songs from the 20's and 30's such as "These Foolish Things," "It Had to Be You," "You Go To My Head," and "They Can't Take That Away From Me" were revitalized to create a modern day soundtrack to our lives. Acoustic or electric...sitting down or getting down. Whatever Rod does...he's still doing it right.
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