London, UK · classic-rock · pop

Rod Stewart

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Six decades of gravel and swagger — from the Faces to the Great American Songbook, still rock's raspiest showman.

Rod Stewart grew up in north London and started out busking with a harmonica in 1962 before moving through the British blues and R&B scene of the 1960s. He joined the Jeff Beck Group in 1967, then Faces in 1969, singing alongside Ronnie Wood while also launching a solo career the same year.

His debut solo album, An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, appeared in 1969, mixing rock, folk, soul and R&B. Every Picture Tells a Story, his third album, broke through in 1971, topping the charts in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, with its single "Maggie May" doing the same. Never a Dull Moment followed in 1972, also reaching number one in the UK.

After Faces split in 1975, Stewart kept up the momentum with Atlantic Crossing and the ballad "Sailing," then a run of albums, A Night on the Town, Foot Loose & Fancy Free and Blondes Have More Fun, that repeatedly went to number one across the UK, US, Canada and Australia. The disco single "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" topped charts in all four countries.

Through the late 1970s and 1980s his sound shifted toward soft rock and pop, with the ballad "Rhythm of My Heart" from 1991's Vagabond Heart becoming a top-five hit, and "All for Love," recorded with Bryan Adams and Sting in 1993, reaching number one in several countries. In the early 2000s he turned to recording albums of pre-rock American standards.

Stewart has sold more than 120 million records, with ten UK number-one albums and thirty-one UK top-ten singles, six of them chart-toppers, plus sixteen US top-ten singles including four number ones. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame solo in 1994 and again with Faces in 2012, entered the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, and was knighted in 2016.

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