N-Trance featuring Rod Stewart 'Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?'

Chart Peak: 7
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N-Trance's update of Rod Stewart's 'Da Ya Think I'm Sexy' crashed into the chart at No. 7 on 26th October '97... Their other big hits include 'Set You Free' and 'Stayin' Alive'

Speaking of old songs from the 1970s with the word "sexy" in the title... Indeed this was also in the chart at the same time as the Clock and Hot Chocolate versions of 'You Sexy Thing'. Ignoring his uncredited vocal for Glass Tiger on Now 20,  Roderick returns to the Now series for the first time since the very first album; and does so via one of several attempts by N-Trance to repeat the successful formula of 'Stayin' Alive' by taking a danceable but uncool oldie and updating the style with new rapped verses by Ricardo Da Force. Unusually this version actually samples the original chorus vocal - hence the featured credit - and parts of the backing track. It's a silly version of a song that was already pretty laughable (Stewart's cowriter Duane Hitchings claims that it was always supposed to be a parody) though it does drop the lyrical idea of the couple being shy or nervous.

This version is one of those tracks that is sort of rubbish but mildly enjoyable, although it does suffer from the sense that they'd already tried this trick a few times too many. It's not as good as 'Stayin' Alive' but I would take it over more "credible" N-Trance songs like 'Set You Free'.

Rod Stewart also appears on: Now 1
N-Trance also appear on: Now 30, 32, 50
Available on: A Night At The Roxbury (Soundtrack)

Glass Tiger 'My Town'

Chart Peak: 33

YouTube

OK, I've got to admit that until this album cropped up I'd never heard of Glass Tiger, and certainly had no idea that they'd managed two Top 40 singles in this country, of which this was already the second. They turn out to have been a Canadian rock group fronted by the Scottish-born Alan Frew. That's still no excuse for him to have come up with this awful pseudo-Caledonian treacle, the sort of thing Simple Minds would have rejected as too overdone.

So corny and sentimental is the longing for "Scotia" that it's hardly a surprise when Rod Stewart turns up halfway through (at least I presume that the version they'll have used here, though there's also one
without him). This is no 'In A Broken Dream,' though.

Available on: No Turning Back: 1985 - 2005

Rod Stewart 'Baby Jane'

Chart Peak: 1 (3 weeks)

YouTube

This one, I remember. And I remember that even then I knew who Rod Stewart was; at any rate I had an idea who he was, which was obviously based on the sort of person he seemed to be at that time, and I probably thought he was American too. I thought all rock stars were American unless I knew they weren't.
In retrospect, Stewart's last Number One single plays a bit like an attempt to recapture his first ones; like 'Maggie May' and 'You Wear It Well' it's a second-person monologue, in which Rod is nominally addressing some sort of femme fatale character, although in no case do you really believe that he'd say any of this out loud to her, if he even could. Our "Jane" here seems reminiscent of the social-climbing characters from 'Out Of Time' or '(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone', at least in the minds of their respective narrators. But for perhaps the last time in his career, Rod Stewart appears to acknowledge the passage of time, his protagonist here coming over as somewhat more mature than Maggie's toyboy. He's "said goodbye so many times the situation ain't all that new," and he can probably afford his own pool cue too. Thus the tone is more rueful than mortally wounded - yes, he reminds Jane that he knows secrets about her, but he doesn't seem to be rushing to divulge them in any way, just taking a deep breath and (in the chorus) hoping for better luck next time. The material's interesting enough to inspire one of his better vocal performances too, although it can't stop him doing that odd look left-look right dance in the video.
It's unfortunate that the rest of the song doesn't seem to deliver on the promise of the singing, with its muddy post-disco production and that awful sax solo. It's interested me enough to want to hear Belle & Sebastian's version, which I'm guessing isn't delivered in quite the same style. This doesn't add up to one of his best records, but I don't think he's done anything better since.

And in case anybody asks, I did assume this song was named after the film Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? but I've never seen it.

Also appearing on: Now 38 [N-Trance featuring Rod Stewart]
Available on:Some Guys Have All The Luck [2CD + DVD]