The genre Rod Stewart said had “the greatest singers” ever
Any singer like Rod Stewart doesn’t want to spend their lives playing the same type of music forever.
Even the biggest one-trick ponies in the music industry are going to have moments when things start to feel a little bit boring, and it’s only natural for them to change things up. And while that might mean working on their technique or jumping into a completely different genre, Stewart knew that if he wanted to make everlasting music, it would mean taking on the tunes that only giants managed to pull off.
But it’s not like reinterpreting was anything new for him, either. A lot his best material with The Jeff Beck Group included a handful of covers like ‘You Shook Me’, and even when he entered his solo career, are we simply going to ignore all of the tracks that he didn’t write himself? ‘Downtown Train’ is certainly a great tune, but that only came from Tom Waits putting the finer touches when writing it.
If Stewart wanted to branch out, though, he was never going to do it half-heartedly. There are still plenty of people who can’t stand ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’, but the one thing no one could deny was how he committed to the bit. This was a mindless tune about sex, so hearing him playing up the more playful aspects of the tune is a lot better than him fumbling his way through a disco beat.
Changing genres wasn’t new to him, but there comes a time where artists need to take a break from being strictly trendy. Stewart certainly had his fair share of moments in the spotlight, but was there really any room for him to compete in the same fields that Nirvana and Pearl Jam were playing in during the 1990s. Probably not, but that didn’t mean he had to completely stop. All that meant was changing things up a little more, and since he still had his voice, why not go the easy listening route?
The 2000s were already an era when classic rock was starting to wane. People were now graduating to the indie sphere and listening to more underground acts, but when Stewart began interpreting the jazz standards from the Great American Songbook, you could tell the whole thing was a labour of love. He wanted to be recognised for the voice behind all that rasp, but that also meant competing with industry giants.
Keep in mind that the only reason those songs were classics was because of the jazz singers, and Stewart knew he needed to at least do justice to what they did, saying, “I still love rock ‘n’ roll, but this is a challenge. These songs are not easy to sing. They’ve been sung by some of the greatest singers that have lived, so if you want to do these songs you better know that you’re competing with Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.”
While it was definitely a challenge at the time, it turned out that Stewart was actually a little bit ahead of the curve. The retro chic genre was bound to come back into play later in the decade with singers like Amy Winehouse, but even into the 2010s, artists like Paul McCartney were flowing his lead by making their own collection of jazz tunes with the same kind of wistful delivery.
Although Stewart’s voice is far from the first one that appears in your mind when listening to tracks like ‘The Way You Looked Tonight’ and ‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye’, most people would walk away pleasantly surprised listening back to what he could do. He’s far from displacing any of the jazz greats, but it was always about giving respect to the tunes rather than trying to outdo the icons.
