Pop/Rock

Listen to a playlist of rare Rod Stewart tracks

Jeff Beck, "Morning Dew"
Truth, 1968
Going from whispered prayer to full-gale howl, Stewart echoes the spacey moan and wah-wah roar of Beck's guitar. Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant took this dynamic to the bank, but Beck and Stewart did it first.

"Handbags and Gladrags"
The Rod Stewart Album, 1969
Written and elaborately arranged by ex-Manfred Mann singer Mike d'Abo, this portrait of Dickensian woe is Stewart's first great ballad performance -- soulful comfort coming from every crack in his voice.

"Gasoline Alley"
Gasoline Alley, 1970
The title track of Stewart's second solo album is one of many rootsy beauties he wrote with fellow Beck alumnus and Faces mate Ron Wood. The pioneer-folk influence of the Band is strong, but the poignance is in the way Stewart's vocal and Wood's guitars rise and sigh in yearning tandem.

Faces, "Miss Judy's Farm"
A Nod is as Good as a Wink . . . To a Blind Horse, 1971
This grinder is from the Faces' cheerfully alcoholic, arena-ruling heyday: a simple Wood riff bulked up into brawling funk. Stewart chants more than sings, like he's calling for more drinks before closing time.

"Cigarettes and Alcohol"
When We Were the New Boys, 1998
Before he took off for the Great American Songbook, Stewart covered this Oasis song with vengeful brio -- like he was taking back from Noel Gallagher all that Gallagher cribbed from the Faces.