The Faces song Rod Stewart slammed: “He continued not to like it for 25 years”
Through the cringeworthy ebbs and charismatic flows of Rod Stewart’s career, there are lightning-in-a-bottle moments that remind fans that his voice is one of the most enigmatic and unique in rock and roll. It’s both raspy and sweet, capable of harnessing the tenderness of rhythm and blues and subtly showcasing the free-spirited power of good old rock and roll.
And during his time with The Faces, it was at its best. It had a youthful innocence to it, not yet hampered by the toe-curling boasting of libido that he feels is necessary to his rockstar act. Despite Stewart’s vocal performances being some of the best, I would argue that, throughout his whole career, the band only experienced mild success. On a larger point, this is one of music’s most disappointing realities, given the fact that hindsight would tell us a band fronted by Stewart and with Ronnie Wood on guitar could have been a rock and roll tour de force.
Their track ‘Stay With Me’ had the caustic power associated with The Rolling Stones and a chorus line appropriate to let Stewart’s soulful voice fly. But of all the songs in their somewhat tepid legacy, it’s ‘Ooh La La’ that lives on the longest. It’s one of those songs that part-time music fans are surprised to hear was sung by a musician so famous, for they assumed a stock Hollywood musician performed it, given its incessant use on rose-tinted romcoms.
The nostalgic guitar line and hypnotising piano flutters are charming enough to make you dance and ignore entirely that it isn’t even Stewart singing. “When we played Rod ‘Ooh La La’, he said, ‘Don’t like it!’” laughed keyboardist Ian McLagan. “He continued not to like it for 25 years until he recorded a version.” The vocals are instead provided by Ronnie Wood, who gives a decent and more muted performance on the track, which arguably lends to its success, given how the melody and sentiment are allowed to sit at the forefront of the song.
McLagan continued to explain Stewart’s feelings, saying, “Anyway, Rod said, ‘It’s the wrong key for me. ‘” He added, “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.”
The fact is, Stewart’s solo career was running parallel to his work with The Faces and come 1973 when Wood had written this song, Stewart’s solo career was beginning to rapidly take off. Not only did Stewart come in and say he didn’t like ‘Ooh La La’, but he was largely absent during the first two weeks of writing and rehearsing.
Stewart’s blinkered approach to collaboration that put his own career in centre frame was somewhat of a blessing in disguise for Wood and the song. Given the song was a product of genuine dialogue he had had with his grandfather, it can only be described as a twist of fate that amidst the band conflict, the bands calling card song ultimately fell in his lap.
Wood remembers the band were “taking the piss out of me… Ahh, he can’t reach the notes–what a terrible barrage to work against.” Now, as thousands of fans sing his catchy chorus and Stewart laps up some second-hand glory by recording his own version years later, Wood seemingly has the last laugh.
