Rod Stewart

From busker to Beck

Roderick David Stewart was born in Highgate, north London, on 10 January 1945. His music career began in 1962, when he took up busking with a harmonica. In January 1964 Long John Baldry heard him playing at Twickenham railway station and offered him a job. In February 1967 he joined the Jeff Beck Group as vocalist, alongside Ronnie Wood. Truth), issued in the United States on 29 July 1968 as by Jeff Beck, reached 15 on the Billboard chart. Stewart co-wrote three of its songs and credited the record with helping to develop his voice. He left in July 1969, after Wood had gone.

Mercury's Lou Reizner had signed him to a solo contract on 8 October 1968. In October 1969 Stewart also became the singer of Faces, with Wood alongside Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones. Until the band split in 1975 he ran the two careers side by side.

The Mercury albums

An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down appeared in the United States in November 1969 as The Rod Stewart Album. Gasoline Alley followed on 12 June 1970. Made at Morgan Studios in London between February and April 1970 and produced by Stewart and Reizner, it set his own songs beside covers of Bobby Womack, Bob Dylan, and Elton John and Bernie Taupin, with several Faces among the players. Langdon Winner of Rolling Stone heard in it the work "of a supremely fine artist."

Every Picture Tells a Story came out on 28 May 1971, after sessions from November 1970 to January 1971 with Stewart producing. Its first single was Reason to Believe, but radio stations began playing the B-side, Maggie May. The album and the single were at number one in both Britain and the United States at the same time. The album also holds the title song, Every Picture Tells a Story, written with Wood, and Mandolin Wind. Robert Christgau gave it an A+, critics placed it third in the 1971 Pazz & Jop poll, and Rolling Stone ranked it 172 in its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums.

Never a Dull Moment, released on 21 July 1972, was a UK number one and reached two in the United States. Its single You Wear It Well, written with Martin Quittenton, also topped the UK chart, and the album closes with a cover of Sam Cooke's Twistin' the Night Away.

Faces and the break

Faces made four studio albums: First Step (1970), Long Player (1971), A Nod Is as Good as a Wink... to a Blind Horse (1971) and Ooh La La (1973). Stay with Me, written by Stewart and Wood for the third, reached six in Britain and 17 in the United States and was the band's only US Top 40 hit. They toured Britain, Europe and the United States from 1970 to 1975, but as Stewart's solo career grew the band was overshadowed by its singer. Smiler (1974) was his last original album for Mercury, and he then moved to Warner Bros. Faces announced their split in December 1975.

Atlantic Crossing, released on 15 August 1975, was recorded between April and June in five American studios and produced by Tom Dowd. Stewart set aside his Faces circle for session players including Booker T. and the MG's and the Memphis Horns, and the rest of the band disliked the change. The record is split into a fast side and a slow side, and its closing song, Sailing, was a UK number one in September 1975. A Night on the Town followed on 18 June 1976, and its Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright) spent eight weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Later years

Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? from Blondes Have More Fun (1978) went to number one in the United States and Britain. In 1993 Stewart and Wood recorded an MTV Unplugged session, issued as Unplugged...and Seated, which reached two on the Billboard 200 and took in Handbags and Gladrags, Cut Across Shorty and four songs from Every Picture Tells a Story. He entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, presented by Jeff Beck, and again in 2012 as a member of Faces. From 2002 he made a series of albums of Great American Songbook standards, and Stardust (2004) was his first US number one album in 25 years. He was knighted in 2016.