Between Ronnie Wood's ambitious guitar-playing and drummer Mick Waller's sloppy thunder, Stewart had plenty of help on The Rod Stewart Album. But he remained the star, revealing himself as a highly original interpreter. 

 The songs on Gasoline Alley were equally strong. With Stewart's folk heart thumping, the dignified empathy of "Only a Hobo" saw him beginning a minicareer of covering Dylan consistently better than anyone else. "Gasoline Alley" marked the cementi 

 "Maggie May" and the title track of Every Picture Tells a Story made for Rod and Ron's finest hour–happy lads wearing their hearts on their sleeves. 

 Never a Dull Moment was still strong: Raw and honest, it found Stewart refreshing his narrative skills with the lusty travelogue, "Italian Girls," and paying his debt to Sam Cooke on "Twistin' the Night Away." 

 A Night on the Town featured an excellent take on Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is the Deepest" and a gallant nod toward Stewart's gay following ("The Killing of Georgie [Part I and II]"). 

 Subsequent album titles like Foolish Behavior and Blondes Have More Fun spell out his disastrous turn toward stadium-mediocrity and soft-porn eroticism. 

 Throughout the Eighties, Stewart's singles–"Lost in You" and "Forever Young," from Out of Order–were competent hitcraft. And (shockingly, felicitously) he began to revive at the end of the decade. 

 A much better introduction is the terrific Storyteller, which collects a ton of prime Rod. Even better, get the first four records of his shining moment and honor an incredible singer by forgoing his tripe.  

 1991's Vagabond Heart was Stewart's best in years. While hardly a return to his early form, a Tina Turner duet, material by Robbie Robertson, and help from the Stylistics show a songman beginning at last to think again. 

 Unplugged revived memories of the early years. 

 Spanner in the Works continued the progress, with a fine Tom Petty cover. 

 And on When We Were the New Boys, he even rocked convincingly again, turning in, of all things, a nice version of Oasis's "Cigarettes & Alcohol." 

 Human marked another downturn, with Rod trying for slick, up-to-the-minute contemporary R&B. 

 It Had to Be You was puzzling: Stewart sings pre-rock standards–not exactly with knowing grace, but with the Voice in fine form. It became a triple-platinum smash, his most successful album since the Seventies. 

 Having finally found a new hit formula, Stewart repeated it for increasingly embarrassing annual sequels. 

 Having finally found a new hit formula, Stewart repeated it for increasingly embarrassing annual sequels. 

 Having finally found a new hit formula, Stewart repeated it for increasingly embarrassing annual sequels. 

 Having finally found a new hit formula, Stewart repeated it for increasingly embarrassing annual sequels. 

 Soulbook is, you guessed it, Jukebox Rod mechanically applying his signature rasp to classic Motown and its contemporaries; at least you can sort of tell that he cares about these songs.  

 The four-disc set The Rod Stewart Sessions salvages raucous work tapes and intriguing outtakes from three decades; it's a treasure for Rodophiles, if not particularly useful to the unconverted.