![]() ![]() Listen to Rod Stewart's 'It Had to Be You' No matter who you are, it could cut you down." To understand why Stewart would want to record an entire album of songbook covers - and to continue doing so until 2010 - is to take several factors into account.įor one thing, this life-threatening news had undeniably altered Stewart's view on life, and what he might do with the rest of his. "You tend to get everything in perspective," he told ABC, "because being that close to something that lethal and fatal – you know, there's always the thought, you know 'I'm going to live forever' like you do, and all of a sudden you realize you can't. Of course, Stewart would go on to record four more albums of songbook covers, singing everything from Hoagy Carmichael to Cole Porter, George Gershwin to Duke Ellington. "This is a one off, and I'll go back to what I usually do." "I'm no rock 'n' roll traitor," he said during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, just a few days before It Had to Be You was released. Featured guest musicians included Slash, Mark Knopfler, Jesse Johnson of the Time, and Robbie McIntosh of the Pretenders.īack then, Stewart was still pushing back against the idea that this was anything more than a temporary detour. Although comprised mostly of material written by others, this studio project was much more in line with the pop-rock sound Stewart's fans had come to expect. That was a far cry from his last LP, 2001's Human. It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook, Stewart's first album of mid-century pop standards, followed on Oct. He returned to work, citing rehearsals with his band as good exercise for his recovering vocal cords – but Sinatra clearly still loomed over the proceedings. Stewart's voice did not come back sounding like Sinatra's, but instead a raspier version of his already slightly grizzled tone. Maybe like Frank Sinatra's, he thought: "Then I really could have made it." He wondered at the time what it might have been like if his voice came back differently, what it might sound like. In essence, Stewart had to re-learn how to sing. "Then eight months and nine months – and it's only just recently started coming back." "So I thought, after six months, I started singing and nothing happened," Stewart told ABC in 2001. Doctors told him it would be six months until his singing voice recovered, but it took longer than that. ![]() Still, the diagnosis and operation was an unexpected blow to Stewart's career. And let's face it: if we're ranking threats to the survival of my career, losing my hair would be second only to losing my voice." "No chemotherapy was required – which, in turn, meant there was no risk that I'd lose my hair. Stewart may be more comfortable and the production might be warmer, but The Great American Songbook is still a bad idea, no matter how slickly it's delivered.He "felt fearful, vulnerable to a degree that I never had before,” Stewart later wrote in his autobiography, then added a dose of humor. That isn't the same thing as a good record, though. Under his watch, Stewart doesn't sound quite so studious and tentative, and the arrangements aren't quite so fussy, which ultimately makes for a better record. Phil Ramone, who co-produced the first two, has left and has been replaced by Steve Tyrell, who releases albums in a similar vein himself. Part of this may be due to a shift in producers. To his credit, he's sounding a bit more comfortable on this third go-round - he doesn't sound as uptight, nor as mannered, as he did before. Like its predecessors, Stardust is built on the misconception that the great vocalist Stewart will sound great singing selections from the great American popular songbook, when his gifts are better suited for music rooted in folk, blues, and rock & roll. Unfortunately, that attitude isn't heard anywhere on the music, which is, for all intents and purposes, pretty much the same as it was on the first two installments of The Great American Songbook. It unwittingly looks like a grown-up variation of the Blondes Have More Fun cover taken 26 years later (Rod still has the same basic hairdo, bless his heart), and it's a welcome glimpse of the roguish charm and laddish sense of humor that used to be Stewart's calling card. Gone are the straightforward portrait shots, and in is a jokey picture of Rod with a pair of hot legs. ![]() 3 is any indication, even Rod Stewart is getting a little tired of the classy act he's had to put on over the last two years, as he's restyled himself as a crooner of pop standards. If the cover of Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Vol. ![]()
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