Few careers in rock and roll have been as long, as winding, and as flat-out fun as Rod Stewart’s. He started out busking with a harmonica on the streets of London, fronted two legendary bands, became one of the biggest solo stars on the planet, survived disco backlash and changing fashions, and then — just when everyone thought they had him figured out — reinvented himself as a crooner of American standards and won his first Grammy at nearly sixty. That voice, all gravel and honey, carried him through six decades. This is how he did it.
The Boy from Highgate Who Wanted to Play Football
Roderick David Stewart was born on January 10, 1945, in Highgate, North London. As a boy he was obsessed with football and played seriously on school and amateur teams, dreaming of a career on the pitch. But music kept pulling at him, and by the early sixties he was busking with a harmonica, working odd jobs — gravedigging among them, by his own frequently told account — and singing his way through London’s blues clubs.
He passed through a string of bands — the Dimensions, Long John Baldry’s group — before landing as lead vocalist of the Jeff Beck Group in 1967. That band’s heavy, soul-drenched sound made Stewart’s rasp famous in rock circles, but it was his next move that would define him. In 1969, he and guitarist Ronnie Wood joined the Faces, the gloriously rowdy, good-time rock band he would front for the next six years.
Two Bands, One Voice: Juggling the Faces and a Solo Career
Here is what made Stewart’s early years so remarkable: he was doing two full-time jobs at once. While fronting the Faces — scoring hits like “Stay with Me” — he was also building a solo career, releasing his debut solo album, “An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down,” in 1969, followed by “Gasoline Alley” in 1970. Both blended rock, folk, soul, and R&B, and both hinted at something big.
The big thing arrived in 1971. His third solo album, “Every Picture Tells a Story,” shot to number 1 in the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia — and its single “Maggie May,” backed with “Reason to Believe,” did the same on the singles charts, topping both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously. The follow-up, “Never a Dull Moment” (1972), hit number 1 in the UK and number 2 in the US, powered by “You Wear It Well,” itself a UK chart-topper. Stewart was suddenly bigger than the band that had made him — and everyone knew it.
The B-Side That Became a Legend
“Maggie May” deserves its own chapter, because it was never supposed to happen. It started life as the B-side of “Reason to Believe” — a last-minute filler, an afterthought. But DJs flipped the record over, and listeners fell for its mandolin-driven, wistful story of a young man’s affair with an older woman. Within weeks it was number 1 in America (topping the chart on October 2, 1971) and number 1 in Britain.
The recording itself was almost accidental magic: the mandolin part played by Ray Jackson of Lindisfarne, Ronnie Wood on bass, and Stewart singing like his life depended on it. It remains one of the great singles of the rock era — proof that sometimes the throwaway track on the back of the single is the one the world was waiting for.
The King of the Charts: Ballads, Disco, and Pure Showmanship
After the Faces broke up in 1975 and Stewart moved to Los Angeles, his solo stardom went stratospheric. “Atlantic Crossing” (1975) hit number 1 in the UK, and its single “Sailing” became a UK chart-topper. “A Night on the Town” (1976) was his fifth straight UK number 1 album, and its “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” spent nearly two months at number 1 in the US. “Foot Loose & Fancy Free” (1977) reached number 2 in America on the strength of “You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim).”
Then came 1978’s “Blondes Have More Fun” and its single “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” — a full-throated dive into disco that horrified rock purists and delighted everyone else, hitting number 1 in both the US and the UK.
The Nineties and the Art of the Comeback
The eighties closed with Stewart leaning into heartfelt adult pop, and the nineties rewarded him for it. His soulful take on Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train” climbed to number 3 on the Hot 100 in early 1990, and the 1991 album “Vagabond Heart” gave him two more Top 10 singles: “Rhythm of My Heart” at number 5 and “The Motown Song” at number 10. Then, in 1994, he teamed up with Bryan Adams and Sting for “All for Love,” the theme from “The Three Musketeers” — which soared to number 1 in the US, his fourth American chart-topper.
That same year brought two milestones that summed up his stature. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, presented by his old bandmate Jeff Beck. And on New Year’s Eve, he played to an estimated 3.5 million people on Copacabana Beach in Rio — a Guinness World Record for the largest free rock concert in history. Three and a half million people, one raspy voice, and not a single person in that crowd who didn’t know every word.
The Second Act: Standards, a First Grammy, and Sir Rod
By the early 2000s, Stewart’s chart days looked behind him. Then he did the last thing anyone expected: he started singing the great American standards of the 1930s and ’40s. The “Great American Songbook” series, launched with “It Had to Be You” in 2002, became a surprise commercial phenomenon — all five volumes reached the Top 10, introducing him to an entirely new, older audience that had never bought a rock record in its life. “Stardust… The Great American Songbook Vol. III” (2004) debuted at number 1 in the US, his first American chart-topper in 25 years, and featured a lovely duet with Dolly Parton on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” It won him his first-ever Grammy Award, for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. He followed it in 2006 with “Still the Same… Great Rock Classics of Our Time,” covering Dylan and Creedence, which also debuted at number 1.
The honors piled up the way they do for true survivors: induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 1994 (presented by Jeff Beck) and again in 2012 as a member of the Faces, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, a CBE in 2007 — and in the 2016 Birthday Honours, a knighthood for services to music and charity. Sir Roderick David Stewart. Not bad for the boy with the harmonica.
Across it all — the folk-rock poetry, the disco strut, the heartfelt ballads, the standards — that voice never changed. Raspy, soulful, instantly recognizable, it sold more than 120 million records and carried sixteen US Top 10 singles, four of them number 1s. Rod Stewart didn’t just survive every era of modern pop. He made every era sound like him.
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