The 1973 song Rod Stewart never wanted to sing: “Don’t like that”
In the world of larger-than-life rock and roll frontmen, Rod Stewart always seemed out there to have a good time.
Every single one of his records seemed like a party whenever he got behind the microphone, and even when he was still working with The Jeff Beck Group, he managed to give a bit more levity to the guitar genius every single time he performed. There was no reason for him to think that the good times had to stop, but there were more than a few times when he didn’t see eye to eye with the rest of the Faces.
Granted, it’s not like that was ever going to break the bond between him and Ronnie Wood. Stewart and Wood were practically like brothers every single time they got together, and even though the guitarist lucked out in being the one person who joined The Rolling Stones, Stewart felt that he would have been just as happy if he had stayed with his old band and kept playing straight-ahead rock and roll.
Because when you look back on them, The Faces definitely had it in them to be one of the greatest bands of their generation. They were used to making some of the booziest hard rock ever made, but despite them having a lot of potential, Stewart knew that there was a lot more that he had to offer as a solo artist. ‘Maggie May’ was only a few years away, and he didn’t want to be held back by his band, either.
And it’s not like either of them was getting along all of the time. There were still pieces of their discography that didn’t sit well with the rest of them, and even though the band wouldn’t have been as happy making the kind of laid-back folksy tunes on Every Picture Tells a Story, Stewart wasn’t all that jazzed about singing a song like ‘Ooh La La’ when they first presented it to him back in the day.
The song is already a classic these days, but according to Ian McLagan, Stewart would have rather recorded anything else, saying, “When we played Rod ‘Ooh La La’, he said, ‘Don’t like it!’. He continued not to like it for 25 years until he recorded a version. ‘Anyway,’ Rod said, ‘It’s the wrong key for me.’ He pointed to Woody and said, ‘You should sing that.’ So, that’s why Ronnie Wood sang it. An odd choice perhaps, but he sang it so beautifully, I think.”
And while anyone stepping into Stewart’s shoes was going to have their work cut out for them, Wood does a decent job in keeping the good times rolling when he sings the tune. He isn’t the greatest singer in the world, but for a song like this that was all about getting the band playing together, being able to sing like Freddie Mercury wasn’t exactly their top priority whenever they plugged in.
If anything, this was Wood’s chance to help stretch out his voice a little more, which ended up coming in handy when working on a few of his solo records. He didn’t like the idea of being the one hogging all the limelight onstage, but if he could do justice to a song The Faces made, he could do just as well working with tunes that were suited for George Harrison, like ‘Far East Man’ from Dark Horse.
So while Stewart wasn’t cut out for the song at the time, The Faces proved that they didn’t need their star singer on every track. Stewart was the glue that held them together most of the time, but when you cut out all of the bells and whistles in the production, they were simply a great rock and roll band, and that was all that mattered.
