Latest Release
- 22 NOV 2024
- 6 Songs
- Every Picture Tells a Story · 1971
- AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP · 2015
- A Night On the Town · 1976
- Some Guys Have All the Luck · 1975
- Foot Loose & Fancy Free · 1977
- Blondes Have More Fun · 1978
- Some Guys Have All the Luck · 1983
- Never a Dull Moment · 1972
- Vagabond Heart · 1991
- Tonight I'm Yours · 1981
Essential Albums
- Rod Stewart aimed for hips and hearts on this 1977 album. Opening track “Hot Legs” has grinding guitars that you feel in your pelvis and lyrics that are all licked lips and arched eyebrows. But he soon turns in two of his finest ballads: “I Was Only Joking” examines his past over a lovely descending melody, while “You’re In My Heart (The Final Acclaim)” is a stirring tribute to former girlfriend Britt Ekland, with Stewart cheekily ranking her above his favourite football teams.
- Rod Stewart perfectly displays two sides of his musical personality on this 1976 album. The first half contains some of his most heartfelt ballads, including the lush and lusty “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” and the ambitious Dylan-esque storytelling of “The Killing of Georgie, Pts. 1 & 2”. Stewart pulls out all the stops on the back half, letting loose that belting rasp on gritty rockers “Pretty Flamingo” and “The Wild Side of Life”, recalling his days with the Faces.
- It’s amazing to listen to Every Picture Tells a Story and think about everything the then-26-year-old Rod Stewart had already done. Two solo albums, lead singer for Faces and the Jeff Beck Group, a guy as relatable to teenage mods as the wistful traditionalists of roots-rock, not to mention a pretty good ringer for an American R&B singer, at least as far as white British guys went. Every Picture Tells a Story made him the kind of household name you expected to see on tabloids and TV, but it also had the anachronistic aura of a Band or Bob Dylan album: Music obviously made as a response to modern rock ’n’ roll, but that also felt like it tapped into a sepia-toned world that came before it. Calling it “nostalgic“ would be wrong in that “nostalgia” means wanting to go back to the past, where most of the songs on Every Picture Tells a Story sound like they want to keep the past exactly where it is, at least until they can laugh at it. If you’ve ever thought you were cool but realised you weren’t, you’ll understand the title track. If you ever realised some weird interaction you had when you were younger actually makes less sense now than it did then, that’s “Maggie May”. If you stupidly, bravely continue to fight the good fight in the face of all prevailing evidence for why you should give up, that’s “(Find a) Reason to Believe”. This was 1971: The Rolling Stones were too edgy, Genesis were too complicated, but here was Rod Stewart making the kind of good-timey, rough-and-tumble, beautiful stuff old people could dance to at reunions and shed a tear to at funerals and feel—for a minute—like they were young again. Then the old people would die and the young people who never thought they’d get old would take their turn. In a way, the most progressive aspect of the album was the idea that rock music didn’t have to be youth culture, or at least that it could capture the pleasures of aging as well as anything else—a theme Stewart would explore later with stuff like “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and “Young Turks” and “Forever Young”. Yeah, he was a little corny—but he had the guts to embrace it.
- 2024
Artist Playlists
- His raspy charm bridges pub rock, disco, and big ballads.
- Lean back and relax with some of the mellowest cuts.
- Dig in with Rod the Mod.
- Sixties rock 'n' roll, classic soul, the blues and skiffle are just the beginning.
- Generations of rock singers have been influenced by the wild, gravelly voiced Brit.
Singles & EPs
- Johnny Mac And The Faithful
- Katja Rieckermann & TMTQ
More To Hear
- The legendary singer talks songwriting with Nile Rodgers.
- The Crisis Crew talks withRod Stewart and breaks down the hits of ’69.
- Summer songs, plus an homage to Rod Stewart.
More To See
About Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart has been lauded as the finest singer of his generation; he's written songs that turned into modern standards, sung with the Faces, and had massive commercial success. He's one of rock & roll's best interpretive singers, as well as an innovative songwriter whose work created a raw, loose, and charming combination of folk, rock, blues, and country. After becoming successful, he started to lose the rootsier elements of his music, adapting his style to suit the times, leading to smash hits in the disco, new wave, and MTV eras. Stewart eased into his status as a veteran singer by releasing a series of albums where he crooned The Great American Songbook, but returned to original material with 2013's Time. It began another act for the rocker, but he still offered retro material on occasion, as when he teamed with boogie woogie pianist Jools Holland on 2024's Swing Fever.
- FROM
- England
- BORN
- 10 January 1945
- GENRE
- Rock