Whenever I think of the word silly in relation to music, Paul McCartney immediately springs to mind, largely because of his song titled ‘Silly Love Songs’, but more because of the playful criticism the word denotes. It’s ultimately harmless and slightly speaks to a sort of songwriting charm that exists despite the subtle slander, but it’s not a word I think I’ve ever used for Rod Stewart.
Not because I’m a blindingly dedicated Stewart fan, but rather because his misfires don’t carry the charm associated with silliness. Unlike McCartney, whose melodies still manage to feel whimsically stupid, Stewart instead leans into the cringeworthy.
It’s paled into significance by his good songs, largely recorded in his earlier years, that showcase a sort of boyish charm. His voice was soulfully rugged and it tenderly sung beautifully crafted melodies. Somewhere along the line, that stardom brought with it subtle hints of delusion that resulted in overtly sexual songs that lost all sense of nuanced charm.
With his mullet in tow, Stewart spent the majority of the 1980s shouting about his libido, but one track in particular even managed to test his limits. His 1986 hit was a suitably cheesy love song for the decade, pitting Stewart as some sort of Romeo figure who apologises for his poor behaviour by arrogantly reminding the subject, “But darlin’ I’m still the best that you ever had”.
Given the brazen confidence in the above line, you can picture Stewart penning it with a wry smile, yet that wasn’t the case. The song was in fact written by Holly Knight, who actually tried to approach the subject with more nuance and sincerity.
“I never meant ‘I want to give you my love touch’ literally. Imagine if you’re on the phone and your sweetheart is far away somewhere. You haven’t seen them for weeks, and before you hang up, you send them a little love, a heart, a love touch. It wasn’t meant to be literally like, ‘I’m the greatest lover in the world and I am the best that you ever had’, but he took it literally that way,” highlighted Knight.
While the song was often tracklisted in Stewart’s greatest hits albums, he’s since conceded that it was “one of the silliest songs I’ve ever recorded”, and has reduced any live performance of the track to simple interludes and snippets.
His wild misunderstanding of the song upset Knight, who, upon hearing of Stewart’s dismissal of the song, said, “I was heartbroken and stricken,” adding, “Like, this is news to me. If you want to talk about a song that is embarrassing lyrically, I would say ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?‘ falls in that area.”
Compositionally, it was somewhat of a departure for Stewart also, with the rhythm sections including steel drums from a Fairlight synthesiser played by Knight herself. Ultimately, it sounded like exactly what it turned out to be: a cobbling together of two ideas with wildly different artistic outlooks. Nevertheless, silly or not, it still peaked at number six on the US Billboard charts.
