Good news for Rod Stewart.
The 79 year old rock star is number 1 this morning on iTunes. “Swing Fever” is the name, it’s produced by Jools Holland.
Whoever’s doing the publicity is doing a good job. Rod appeared on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday and the show’s correspondent, Mark Phillips, acted like this was the first time the singer had ever recorded song classics with a band.
This is actually the SIXTH time. Rod has five albums of the Great American Songbook he’s released since 2002. The great Richard Perry produced most of them, the equally great Phil Ramone worked on some of them. The five albums, which originated with Clive Davis, have sold 29 million copies altogether.
But three cheers for Rod! His voice sounds like a good Scotch single malt, and he’s got the rhythm right. I prefer Perry’s arrangements, but Holland loves jazz and brings a comfy warmth to the proceedings.
So often CBS Sunday is on target with these music segments thanks to Anthony Mason. But very often, in all categories, they were blissfully ignorant. Still, a plug on there sells albums, and the result is Rod’s zoom to number 1.
(I mean, really, when Phillips says, “This isn’t Maggie May,” Rod should have replied, “Where have you been?”)
Best line of the segment is at the end, when Rod shows Phillips his $5 million Ferrari. Stewart says cheekily, “Sorry, I’m very lucky but I had an amazing talent, and you didn’t.”
