NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 22, 2003–Last year Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famer Rod Stewart opened a timeless songbook and started a new chapter in his stellar career with the release of It Had To Be You…The Great American Songbook. The album, a collection of cherished pop standards, literally took the world by storm. Debuting at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart, it fast became one of the hottest album of the year, earning a Grammy nomination, selling nearly 4 million copies worldwide and creating a demand for a second volume.
Now, Rod Stewart is ready to set forth The Great American Songbook: Volume II, which will be released on October 21, 2003. Produced again by luminaries Richard Perry, Phil Ramone and Clive Davis, Volume II consists of 14 all-timers such as “I’m In The Mood For Love,” “Smile,” “As Time Goes By,” “I Only Have Eyes For You,” “Someone To Watch Over Me,” “Til’ There Was You,” and a delicious duet with Cher on “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered,” with the almost-never-heard original sexy lyrics.
Clive Davis comments, “Last year, Rod’s first album The Great American Songbook won a Grammy nomination and literally exploded in sales all over the world. His new album, Volume II, is purely and simply a gem. He inimitably captures these wonderful classic standards, breathes new life into them and makes them his own.”
It Had To Be You…The Great American Songbook was Rod’s first foray into the world of pop standards. With his trademark voice, songs from the 20’s and 30’s such as “These Foolish Things,” “It Had to Be You,” “You Go To My Head,” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” were revitalized to create a modern day soundtrack to our lives. With countless charting hits, the rock n’ roll icon has sold 120 million records which include landmarks such as 1976’s A Night On The Town, 1977’s Footloose and Fancy Free, 1978’s Blondes Have More Fun -which taught the world to strut “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”- the 1990 retrospective Storyteller and 1991’s Vagabond. His catalog of hits – many of them written and composed by Stewart himself- includes lifetime anthems such as “Maggie May,” “Tonight’s the Night,” “You Wear It Well,” “Every Picture Tells A Story,” “You’re In My Heart,” “Stay With Me,” “Downtown Train,” “Forever Young,” “Infatuation” and many more.
In other news, The Rod Stewart Musical, “Tonight’s the Night,” opens at London’s Victoria Palace Theater in mid-October. Writer/director Ben Elton has fashioned a great big all singing, all dancing story-musical with a cast of 36 using more than twenty of Rod’s most beloved songs. With high public anticipation and a huge box office advance, “Tonight’s the Night” is expected to become the West End’s newest smash.