ROD STEWART
The Very Best of Rod Stewart
Warner Bros.
· Nice hair, Rod, shame about the songs.
Fans will be disappointed; detractors will be elated. Any compilation of Rod's that includes the mortifyingly dreadful "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" can hardly be called "the very best of." On the other hand, if this is in fact the cream of the crop, then presumably no more such collections are to follow.
Indeed, it's tough to know what to make of this CD. For one thing, the 1989 release Storyteller more than does justice to the man's career and on the whole is a far better tribute. Rod Stewart's best work is clearly his time with the Faces and his early solo albums, represented here only by the inclusion of "Maggie May" and "You Wear It Well." Perhaps some justification can be made for the selection of mid-70s hits like "Tonight's the Night" and "You're in My Heart," but once we hit "Hot Legs" the downhill slide is already underway.
It's surprising, then, that more than half the songs here come from the 1980s or ’90s. By this time, Stewart had become a parody of his former self and it shows in his material (e.g. "Young Turks," "Forever Young"). He was still a masterful interpreter of other people's songs – notably Tom Waits's "Downtown Train" – but who'd have thought in 1970 that Rod the Mod would turn out to be Tony Bennett in disguise?
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