"I have heard bits and pieces," Stewart told the Daily Telegraph in 2002, "but Robbie went more for the big-band stuff, whereas we stayed away from that. 1 in the U.K., selling millions of copies. This might have been an inconsequential development were it not for the fact that Williams had just released 2001's Swing When You're Winning, an album of mostly swing covers including songs written by Bobby Darin, Nat King Cole and, ironically, a song partially credited to Al Jolson ("Me and My Shadow"). Stewart's ex-wife, Rachel Hunter, began dating the English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams around this time, as well. "But I think it gave me a very, very early love of music."Īs Stewart told Leno: "These songs have been with me most of my life." They were awful dancers, really, with a collection of footwear that was quite astounding," he told Rolling Stone in 2003, with a laugh. "We had a small grand piano, and I used to sneak downstairs and hide underneath it and watch everybody dancing and getting drunk. Stewart remembered his parents hosting boisterous parties back then, always filled with music. (Jolson's legacy has since been revisited because of his frequent appearances in blackface makeup – including in 1927's The Jazz Singer, his best-known role and the very first feature-length film to include synchronized talking.) He inspired the likes of Bing Crosby, Irving Berlin and Judy Garland. Once described as Stewart's first musical memory, Jolson was one of America's best known and highest paid stars of the '20s. He may also have been looking backward at his life up until the diagnosis, including a childhood in London where Stewart's parents introduced him to popular singers like Al Jolson. Listen to Rod Stewart's 'It Had to Be You' No matter who you are, it could cut you down." To understand why Stewart would want to record an entire album of songbook covers - and to continue doing so until 2010 - is to take several factors into account.įor one thing, this life-threatening news had undeniably altered Stewart's view on life, and what he might do with the rest of his. "You tend to get everything in perspective," he told ABC, "because being that close to something that lethal and fatal – you know, there's always the thought, you know 'I'm going to live forever' like you do, and all of a sudden you realize you can't. Of course, Stewart would go on to record four more albums of songbook covers, singing everything from Hoagy Carmichael to Cole Porter, George Gershwin to Duke Ellington. "This is a one off, and I'll go back to what I usually do." "I'm no rock 'n' roll traitor," he said during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, just a few days before It Had to Be You was released. Featured guest musicians included Slash, Mark Knopfler, Jesse Johnson of the Time, and Robbie McIntosh of the Pretenders.īack then, Stewart was still pushing back against the idea that this was anything more than a temporary detour. Although comprised mostly of material written by others, this studio project was much more in line with the pop-rock sound Stewart's fans had come to expect. That was a far cry from his last LP, 2001's Human. It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook, Stewart's first album of mid-century pop standards, followed on Oct. He returned to work, citing rehearsals with his band as good exercise for his recovering vocal cords – but Sinatra clearly still loomed over the proceedings. Stewart's voice did not come back sounding like Sinatra's, but instead a raspier version of his already slightly grizzled tone. Maybe like Frank Sinatra's, he thought: "Then I really could have made it." He wondered at the time what it might have been like if his voice came back differently, what it might sound like. In essence, Stewart had to re-learn how to sing. "Then eight months and nine months – and it's only just recently started coming back." "So I thought, after six months, I started singing and nothing happened," Stewart told ABC in 2001. Doctors told him it would be six months until his singing voice recovered, but it took longer than that. Still, the diagnosis and operation was an unexpected blow to Stewart's career. And let's face it: if we're ranking threats to the survival of my career, losing my hair would be second only to losing my voice." "No chemotherapy was required – which, in turn, meant there was no risk that I'd lose my hair. He "felt fearful, vulnerable to a degree that I never had before,” Stewart later wrote in his autobiography, then added a dose of humor.
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