Credit: Far Out / Mercury Records
Sun 16 August 2026 10:43, UK
As much as Rod Stewart is firmly rooted in the world of rock ‘n’ roll, he’s never been shy about his love of soul, which has been a prominent part of his life since the swinging 1960s.
While the ‘Maggie May’ singer would be the first to admit that he’s never existed in the same league as vocalists like Sam Cooke, that doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate their musical gift. He even went a step further in 2009 by releasing a full-blown soul album, titled Soulbook.
The album was Stewart’s way of passing on these songs that he’s adored for his entire adult life to his fans, who may have been missing out on a series of Motown and Stax classics.
Back in 1995, he also eulogised three of his musical heroes on the track, ‘Muddy, Sam and Otis’, which Stewart penned in honour of Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding.
Stewart isn’t the only rock ‘n’ roller who feels this way about the aforementioned trio, with Keith Richards another who can speak all day about his love for any of the names above without stopping for breath.
For Stewart, Redding is simply a talent that he’ll never get tired of, even though listening to him is a bittersweet experience due to his tragic death in 1967. He has played ‘Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay’ on 70 occasions in concerts over the years, but the song that reduced him to tears is ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ when he heard Redding sing it live.
‘Try A Little Tenderness’ is among Redding’s finest from his all too short career, but is somewhat of an anomaly. Considering his vocal chops, it’s almost funny that he would have a song called ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ in his catalogue. This is the same man who made works like ‘Respect’ that Aretha Franklin transformed into a classic, so if there was anything he was good at, it was demanding the attention of the audience instead of getting in touch with his sensitive side.
Further reading: From The Vault
Every rough guy has a gentle soul, though, and half of the lyrics on this song sound like they’re coming deep within his heart. He may be instructing a man to try some tenderness when he’s with his lady, but that kind of language can only come from a man who has tried the same approach and ended up getting his heart stomped on.
As Redding died in 1967, there aren’t that many people still standing who were fortunate to hear his voice live, but Stewart is one of them. After naming ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ as one of his all-time favourite songs while on BBC Radio 2 in 2018, he recalled, “I saw Otis in 1967 at the Kuban state, and I cried my eyes out when he sang this song.”
Stewart vividly added, “What was interesting about the show is that he only played for 20 minutes, they have booked Booker T.& the MG’s, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave and they all did 10, 20 minutes and the show was all over in an hour and a half.”
That bill is the stuff of dreams for any fan of soul, and it wasn’t lost on Stewart, even back then, that he was witnessing history, hence the visceral outpouring of emotion.
Compared to the other soul musicians working in Memphis, Redding was a completely different breed. He may not have known the proper terms of music theory whenever he worked with Cropper, but his way of translating his emotions into song was unparalleled.
Although Stewart was still entrenched in the blues at this point, you can hear him start to take bits and pieces from Redding’s work in his other tracks. ‘Maggie May’ may have been a sweet folk-tinged rock and roll tune, but when you hear Stewart play the stripped-down version of the song, it’s practically a Redding piece with British window dressing.
Over the decades that he’s been in the music business, Stewart has heard more songs like than he’s had gin and tonics, yet nothing comes close to the sheer magic of hearing ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ courtesy of Redding. Sadly, it would be the one and only time he’d get to enjoy this particular spectacle.
