The song that showed Rod Stewart that The Faces never reached their “full potential”
The Faces were an unusual group in as much as they always had the potential to be a massive success, but were never quite fortunate enough to hit the heights that they were capable of reaching as an ensemble. Many of the members, such as future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, would go on to forge incredible careers for themselves, and the solo success of Rod Stewart was ultimately one of the main reasons that the group were never able to achieve their full potential.
This wasn’t exactly the first time this fate had befallen some of the members either, as their previous incarnation as the Small Faces dissolved after their frontman, Steve Marriott, left the group to form Humble Pie. The music that they released as a group throughout the 1960s was hugely underappreciated, and records such as the conceptual Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake still stand up today as being cult classics of the psychedelic pop and mod movements.
Throughout both periods, the group that also contained organist Ian McLagan, drummer Kenney Jones and bassist Ronnie Lane, wrote some outstanding songs, but were ultimately shunned from the spotlight in the long term or only afforded a handful of hits. ‘All or Nothing’, ‘Lazy Sunday’ and ‘Tin Soldier’ stand tall as highlights from the career of the first incarnation, and ‘Cindy Incidentally’ and ‘Stay With Me’ represented the Faces’ biggest hits in the UK.
It would, of course, been possible for Stewart to keep both his solo career and life with the Faces going strong in tandem with one another, but ultimately his wavering focus was what led to their downfall as a group. Seemingly intent on putting more effort into becoming a titan in his own right, the Faces were disbanded in 1975 after just six years together, and the rise of Stewart would then become significantly more rapid.
The final single the band released was the 1974 minor hit, ‘You Can Make Me Dance’, the full title of which would take up an entire paragraph, but by this point, Stewart’s enthusiasm for contributing to the band was clearly dwindling. He made his thoughts clear on the disappointment he felt for this particular track in the liner notes of his own Anthology compilation album, and would also level some slight criticism towards the band for not ever making it on a grand scale.
In a small quip he wrote about the track, Stewart said that ‘You Can Make Me Dance’ was “a chirpy little song but not one of my personal favorites,” while adding “I don’t think the Faces ever reached their full potential in the studio – a shame.” The song may mark an underwhelming end to the group, but ultimately it was his decision to let the project fall by the wayside in favour of chasing mainstream success.
Of course, Stewart is hardly going to complain about the career that he’s had, but you can understand the disappointment he may have felt in seeing one of his earliest groups dissolve without making a lasting final impression. At least he had the persistence to keep his career on the right track after this minor slip-up.
