The entire music scene was given a reality check when MTV emerged. Although most of the giants of the music industry made their way through the glamorous 1980s without breaking a sweat, the name of the game was different now, with audiences being just as concerned with how their favourite artists appeared as they were with how they sounded. Though the first artists on the network played up the glamorous angle, Rod Stewart was determined to get his point across through music.
For the past decade and a half, Stewart had been making the rounds as one of the key members of The Faces, with singles such as ‘Stay With Me’ dominating the airwaves. With his signature raspy voice, it was virtually impossible to mistake Stewart for anyone else, even when going onto a solo career with songs like ‘Maggie May’.
The end of the ‘70s didn’t do much to endear Stewart to his hard rock fans, though. As rockers first started to adapt to the medium of music videos, songs like ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’ marked a clear division in his fanbase, with some fans thinking that Stewart had sold his soul for a novelty disco song. While things were murky for a while, it wasn’t long until Stewart regained footing on the charts.
Although that rough-around-the-edges vocal tone might have been a rough sell in the ‘80s, Stewart easily adapted to the MTV generation, his voice standing out amongst the glimmer of synthesisers in his songs. Despite having a decent few years off the strength of songs like ‘Young Turks’, there was also a chance that Stewart could have had an early ‘80s classic on his hands.
When going through different songs to call his own, Stewart nearly took on the ‘80s classic ‘Physical’, made famous by Olivia Newton-John. Years after the fact, Newton-John still doesn’t understand why Stewart turned down the smash, telling Entertainment Weekly, “I wasn’t actually aware at the time that it was written for him. I must talk with him about it one day. Like, did he ever hear it?”.
Considering Stewart was coming off of ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’, the move to this song made a lot more sense than most would realise. After a song declaring one’s sex appeal, it would only be logical to follow it up with a song practically boiling over with sexual energy.
Though Stewart had turned it down, it took some convincing to get Newton-John to cut her version of the song as well. Despite the catchy melody and the eye-catching material, Newton-John was hesitant to take on the song because she thought the lyrics were a bit too cheeky compared to the material she had been used to performing.
Since Stewart was getting severe pushback at the time for the move towards disco, it belonged to Newton-John, who would have one of her biggest hits with the tune. Coming off of Grease and into the MTV generation, Newton-John became one of MTV’s first major success stories, proving that the holdovers from the ‘70s could still have the same level of hits as they did in their prime.
Stewart was undeterred, though, making more subdued material while occasionally coming back to his roots as a rock and roll singer. Since Stewart has expressed a desire to leave rock and roll behind altogether these days, he probably isn’t hurting knowing that this song was never in his repertoire.
