Rockin' the standards

Rod Stewart has already recorded four albums in his Great American Songbook series. So should he do another one? I would say not. And I think so will anybody in the music business. While the chance that he could do another one is always present, there are, after all, so many beautiful songs just waiting to be recorded in the Great American Songbook, the possibility that he could do one that is better is not likely. An artist is always at his best in the first album of what might later become a series. Those that come next are mostly second-rate efforts. 

Then, there is the law of averages. Everything falls, even the great Rod Stewart. Or at the very least, falters. I think he almost did when he veered away from the standards with Soulbook, his Motown soul CD. So another album of oldies at this time might not be what’s best for him. But here he is with Fly Me To The Moon, The Great American Songbook, Volume V. Although there is no way anybody can do damage to Stewart at this point in his career, I still say he took a big risk with this one. Failure or at the very least, a less than stellar performance at the charts can undo all the success accomplished by the previous CDs.

You know now that I didn’t think it possible for No. 5 to be better than its predecessors.   It can’t be. So what I got when I played the CD was a total surprise. It is definitely better. Not only that. Truth to tell, it is the best among all the albums. I am amazed at how Stewart was able to do this. Would you believe, better song choices, romantic, swinging arrangements, vocals with a smile, Stewart sounds like he is enjoying himself tremendously, and a mix that elicits warm, happy feelings. 

You know how good a recording is by the way it wraps the sound around you and as Cheek To Cheek says, it makes you feel like dancing like Fred and Ginger did to “heaven, I’m in heaven….” This is how listening to this CD feels like and I just can’t believe how a flood of thoughts came tumbling down with every track. 

I know you can also dance that way to I Get A Kick Out Of You; don’t you feel like humming Moon River, while walking a New York street on a misty morning as in Breakfast At Tiffany’s; this makes me feel like watching the movie again; also All That Jazz where they had an incredible Bye Bye Blackbird number; and Sleepless in Seattle for a swooney When I Fall In Love; missing the sound of Bobby Darin when I hear Beyond the Sea; can’t get over how sophisticated a songwriter Cole Porter was in those 30 years when I hear I’ve Got You Under My Skin.

I wonder why slow dancing to My Foolish Heart happened before my time and how I never got to do it; but I am thankful I got to dance to Fly Me To The Moon. And what do you think about when you hear September In The Rain? Showers you can walk under on September days. What about That Old Black Magic, What A Difference A Day Makes, I’ve Got The World On a String, Love Me Or Leave Me, Sunny Side Of The Street, All Of Me, She’s Funny That Way, and Ain’t Misbehavin’? The Great American Songbook is literally a treasure trove of beautiful songs and here in this album are some of the best.

Then there is Stewart, a fiery rocker from the `70s. Very Brit, still raspy, still sexy and now rocking the standards. While I would welcome another Maggie May, Hot Legs or Do You Think I’m Sexy any time, I do think that it is in The Great American Songbook that Stewart has found his true calling. After listening to Volume V, I can now say that singing these songs is something he can do forever. I believe that this is what he was born for and I will not mind getting a Volume VI or VII or VIII in the future.