“Rod Stewart Ultimate Hits” is released on June 27th and to celebrate the release we are bringing you the low down on all the classic tracks that have been brought together for the first time in the compilation that includes songs ranging from his 1971 hit, “Maggie May” to selections from 2024’s “Swing Fever,”
Today we focus on Rod’s self penned “The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)”
“The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)” is a song written and recorded by Rod and released as a six-and-a-half minute track on his 1976 album “A Night on the Town”. The song tells the story of a gay man who was killed in New York City. It is song done in two parts, Part 1 was the main part of the hit featuring six verses that blended into the more melancholy and somber Part 2.
The song was released as a single in August 1976 and spent ten weeks on the UK Singles Chart, reaching a peak position of Number 2.. It also charted elsewhere, reaching Number. 25 in the Netherlands, Number. 30 in the US and Number 33 in Canada.
At the time, very few musicians had the confidence to confront the topic of homophobia artistically, There had already been songs about gay relationships in songs like The Kinks “Lola” and “Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reid, but none had addressed the prejudice gay people faced in the 70’s.
In the May 1995 issue of Mojo, Rod explained how he took some poetic license with the details of the actual murder on which the song is based.: “That was a true story about a gay friend of The Faces. He was especially close to me and Mac [Ian McLagan] But he was knifed or shot, I can’t remember which. That was a song I wrote totally on me own over the chord of open E”.
“I only knew him fleetingly,” Rod told The Guardian in 2016. “He would play songs for us and say, ‘Have you heard this?’ I remember him turning us on to Sam and Dave singing ‘Night Time Is the Right Time’. I can tell you, he was a hell of a good-looking guy.” In the song, Rod sympathetically portrayed the murder as unintentional. “That was poetic license,” He added. “I thought maybe they didn’t mean to take his life. Maybe they just meant to do him over.” He also said at the time that he didn’t intend to write a song about a gay man , “If someone said to me, ‘Sit down and write a song about a gay man,’ it would have frightened the daylights out of me. It would have seemed an almighty challenge.”
To this day, “The Killing of Georgie” remains among the most sad and emotional of Rod’s lyrics and could in time go down as his greatest moment as a writer . In the late 70’s, some critics likened his lyrical accomplishment to Bob Dylan. In response, Rod proudly admitted to Barbara Charone of Sounds, “The verse reminds me a bit of “Hurricane”, only slower.” The difference was Dylan’s “Hurricane” was a protest song directly referencing the imprisonment of boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter.
When he was asked how he came to write a song with a gay theme, Rod said, “It’s probably because I was surrounded by gay people at that stage. I had a gay PR man, a gay manager. Everyone around me was gay. I don’t know whether that prompted me into it or not. I think it was a brave step, but it wasn’t a risk. You can’t write a song like that unless you’ve experienced it. But it was a subject that no one had approached before. And I think it still stands up today”.
Talking about Part 2 of the song and it’s similar melody to ‘The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down”. John Lennon said 1n 1980 “The lawyers never noticed”. Rod himself noted: “It does sound like it”, adding “I’m sure if you look back to the 60s, you’d find other songs with those three chords and that melody line”.
Reviews of the track were very positive Billboard said that the lyrics were “a topic of social import” and that Rod’s “gravelly” vocal performance contrasted well with the melody. While Record World said that “Stewart’s saga of the death of a gay friend has received much FM play and been hailed as a breakthrough for the artist.”
In 2023 when Rod took to the stage with Boy George to duet on the song George recalled the first time he heard “The Killing Of Georgie” and the personal meaning the song holds for him. The story resonated with George as a young gay man, and it was his mum that introduced him to it.
His mum left the record in his sock drawer before George had revealed his true sexuality to his her. “I actually thought you’d written it about me!” he joked with Rod right before the pair dueted for the first time.
Chart (1976–77)
Australia Kent Music Report 38
Canada RPM Top Singles 33
Netherlands 25
UK Singles Chart 2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 30
Year-end charts 1976
UK 45
Year-end chart 1977
Canada 200
U.S. (Joel Whitburn’s Pop Annual) 175
When the single was originally released on 13th August 1976 on the Riva label in the UK the B-side was “Fool For You” in America it was released on Warner and the B-side was “Rosie” The track was produced by Tom Dowd
Steve Cropper told SMILER in 2011 “I remember how much fun they were having on the backgrounds ,Dowd didn’t do playbacks much but they kept listening to ‘Georgie’ over and over a very captivating song. I would love to hear it one more time on the big speakers in studio A at Cherokee”
A Night On The Town Personnel
Rod Stewart – vocals
Donald “Duck” Dunn, Bob Glaub, David Hood, Willie Weeks, Lee Sklar – bass guitar
Steve Cropper, Billy Peek, Joe Walsh, Jesse Ed Davis, David Lindley, Fred Tackett, Pete Carr – guitar
John Barlow Jarvis, David Foster, Barry Beckett, J. Smith – keyboards
Roger Hawkins, Andy Newmark, Al Jackson Jr., Rick Shlosser – drums
Tommy Vig, Joe Lala – percussion
Jimmy Horowitz, Mel Lewis, Arif Mardin – string arrangements
Tower of Power horn section – French horn
Jerry Jumonville, Plas Johnson – tenor saxophone