The 1950s singer Rod Stewart never wanted to sing like again: “A waste of time”
There are only a precious few singers who can manage to hold the audience in the palm of their hand like Rod Stewart can.
He was never going to claim to be one of the greatest singers to ever walk the Earth, but when you look at his track record behind the scenes, his signature rasp gives his voice much more character than practically anyone else in the rock and roll world. And even though he was definitely proud of being able to keep his track record going through the years, he was delusional to think that he would ever reach the same level as some of his musical heroes.
Then again, Stewart’s beginnings were almost like a rock and roll fairytale half the time. No one expected The Faces to become one of the biggest bands in the world, but when Jeff Beck came calling, Stewart wasn’t going to pass up the chance to play with one of the best guitarists in the world. He was the perfect counterbalance on records like Beck-Ola, but his calling was always in something more than straight blues belting.
After all, Robert Plant had that covered in Led Zeppelin, and with Every Picture Tells a Story, Stewart was out to prove that he was more than just his raspy wail. ‘Maggie May’ was a folk-rock diamond, and even later in his career, ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ and ‘Young Turks’ were examples of him experimenting with other genres, but the sounds of soul music were always going to be his first true love.
The biggest names in Motown were what made him take an interest in singing, and even when looking at his record collection, he could only dream of reaching the same level as the Temptations when he grew up. But if he was too scared to get up onstage with David Ruffin back in the day, he wasn’t going to have a shot in hell of making it anywhere close to what Sam Cooke had been doing.
Cooke was truly a once-in-a-generation singer, and even if some artists had better ranges, no one was going to sing songs like ’For Sentimental Reasons’ and ‘You Send Me’ like Cooke did. And while Stewart had his fair share of chances to sing some of Cooke’s greatest tunes like ‘Twistin’ The Night Away’, he knew that there was no point for him trying to compete with one of the most emotional voices that he had ever heard.
In his mind, Cooke was insurpassable, and all he could do was hope to pay tribute to him, saying, “I always find when I do a Sam Cooke song, I’m a poor imitation of him. I just hear myself trying to sound like Sam Cooke. It’s a waste of time. I’ll never do a Sam Cooke song again. There’s honesty for you!” But Cooke was only one example of the kind of voice that Stewart was after.
He was fascinated by singers who could twist a song into a million different directions, and even looking at the other crooners at Motown that came later, no one else was trying to sound like the others. The Temptations and The Jackson 5 may have been some of the heavy hitters for the label, but if you were getting signed to Hitsville, everyone was focused on whether you had the best voice and the best songs to back you up every single time you walked into the studio.
Stewart was happy to prop up some of his inspirations whenever he could, but mastering the suave nature of Cooke isn’t something that someone learns in the Great Manuel of Singing. It’s all about the way that you present yourself, and if you’re trying your best to do an imitation of your favourite artists, chances are you’re never going to find out what makes them great in the first place. Because at the end of the day, what the audience wants is someone original, and Stewart knew that there was no voice more original than Cooke’s.
