{"id":688990,"date":"2026-07-13T09:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688990\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T09:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:15:10","slug":"the-1973-song-rod-stewart-never-wanted-to-sing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688990\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1973 song Rod Stewart never wanted to sing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Rod-Stewart-1984-Singer-Publicity-Photo-Warner-Bros-Records-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\" class=\"attachment-single-feature size-single-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"Rod Stewart - 1984 - Singer - Publicity Photo - Warner Bros Records\" layout=\"fill\"  style=\"object-position: 50% 20%\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Credit: Far Out \/ Warner Bros. Records<\/p>\n<p> Mon 13 July 2026 8:00, UK <\/p>\n<p>In the world of larger-than-life rock and roll frontmen, <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/tags\/rod-stewart\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Rod Stewart<\/a> always seemed out there to have a good time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Every single one of his records seemed like a party whenever he got behind the microphone, and even when he was still working with The Jeff Beck Group, he managed to give a bit more levity to the guitar genius every single time he performed. There was no reason for him to think that the good times had to stop, but there were more than a few times when he didn\u2019t see eye to eye with the rest of the Faces.<\/p>\n<p>Granted, it\u2019s not like that was ever going to break the bond between him and Ronnie Wood. Stewart and Wood\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/moment-rod-stewart-met-his-bandmate-ronnie-wood\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">were practically like brothers<\/a>\u00a0every single time they got together, and even though the guitarist lucked out in being the one person who joined The Rolling Stones, Stewart felt that he would have been just as happy if he had stayed with his old band and kept playing straight-ahead rock and roll.<\/p>\n<p>Because when you look back on them, The Faces definitely had it in them to be one of the greatest bands of their generation. They were used to making some of the booziest hard rock ever made, but despite them having a lot of potential, Stewart knew that there was a lot more that he had to offer as a solo artist. <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/is-rod-stewarts-song-maggie-may-a-true-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">\u2018Maggie May\u2019 was only a few years away<\/a>, and he didn\u2019t want to be held back by his band, either.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s not like either of them was getting along all of the time. There were still pieces of their discography that didn\u2019t sit well with the rest of them, and even though the band wouldn\u2019t have been as happy making the kind of laid-back folksy tunes on Every Picture Tells a Story, Stewart wasn\u2019t all that jazzed about singing a song like \u2018Ooh La La\u2019 when they first presented it to him back in the day.<\/p>\n<p>The song is already a classic these days, but according to Ian McLagan, Stewart would have rather recorded anything else, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicradar.com\/news\/ian-mclagan-ronnie-wood-rod-stewart-faces-ooh-la-la-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">saying<\/a>, \u201cWhen we played Rod \u2018Ooh La La\u2019, he said, \u2018Don\u2019t like it!\u2019. He continued not to like it for 25 years until he recorded a version. \u2018Anyway,\u2019 Rod said, \u2018It\u2019s the wrong key for me.\u2019 He pointed to Woody and said, \u2018You should sing that.\u2019 So, that\u2019s why Ronnie Wood sang it. An odd choice perhaps, but he sang it so beautifully, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And while anyone stepping into Stewart\u2019s shoes was going to have their work cut out for them, Wood does a decent job in keeping the good times rolling when he sings the tune. He isn\u2019t the greatest singer in the world, but for a song like this that was all about getting the band playing together, being able to sing like Freddie Mercury wasn\u2019t exactly their top priority whenever they plugged in.<\/p>\n<p>Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n<p>If anything, this was Wood\u2019s chance to help stretch out his voice a little more, which ended up coming in handy when working on a few of his solo records. He didn\u2019t like the idea of being the one hogging all the limelight onstage, but if he could do justice to a song The Faces made, he could do just as well working with tunes that were suited for George Harrison, like \u2018Far East Man\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/george-harrison-dark-horse-and-the-overpowering-paul-mccartney\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">from Dark Horse<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So while Stewart wasn\u2019t cut out for the song at the time, The Faces proved that they didn\u2019t need their star singer on every track. Stewart was the glue that held them together most of the time, but when you cut out all of the bells and whistles in the production, they were simply a great rock and roll band, and that was all that mattered. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>  <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" style=\"\"> ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> <\/a>   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Warner Bros. Records Mon 13 July 2026 8:00, UK In the world of larger-than-life&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[42201,191644,96,128,3584,24105,163607,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-688990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1970s","tag-191644","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-rock","tag-rod-stewart","tag-the-faces","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}