Great music, average collection.

Rod Stewart has now had TONS of hits compilations. Around 1990, he released the Storyteller box set, an extremely comprehensive (up till then) career-spanning hits collection which had pretty much all you could want and more, (except a few album tracks) unless you were a die hard. To go along with that, they also released this much smaller (1 CD/Tape) version.

Even though the box set covered his mid 60's to 1990 material, this set pretty much focuses on the late 70's to '90. Nowaday's I'd recommend it as a sampler of the era. Alot is missing, but it pretty much covers his most popular radio hits.

1. Stay With Me -- The only 'old' track included. In fact, he did it with the Faces, I think. Barroom sounding hard/classic rock & roll which paved the way for later hits.

2. Tonight's The Night -- Mid 70's softer rock ballad which is still famous today. The lyrics were slightly controversial at the time too. Sounds a bit like what James Taylor might do for a love song if he were a rocker.

3. Killing of Georgie -- A mid tempo disco influenced, longer track. Somewhat catchy in sound, but a bit sad in style about a gay friend of Rod's who was beaten to death.

4. Passion -- One of his earliest MTV videos was made for this dance/pop tune which came at the tail end of the disco era. Catchy but not overly memorable.

5. Young Turks -- This is one of my favorites. Rod narrates the story of two teenage lovers on the run, which almost sounds like a country song, but it's an extremely catchy synth/new wave rocker.

6. Infatuation -- The lesser known 1984 hit from the Camouflage album. Retains a slightly hard rock sound (like the guitar solo), just synthesized and poppy. Very underrated.

7. People Get Ready -- The balladish rock cover with Jeff Beck on guitar is presented in regular studio version here. It also was never previously available on a RS album, making it a highlight.

8. Forever Young -- Rod makes his first move into the Adult Contemporary status with this relaxed 1988 rock tune about telling someone to do as they want in life, and they'll always be...yep. Still good, but hearing "lite rock" stations play it to death has kinda ruined it's effect for me.

9. My Heart Can't Tell You No -- Another similar softer rocker, but now he wants a girl to go away, but he can't quite tell her so. It's not nearly as overplayed as "FY" and more unique sounding, so it's the better of the two.

10. I Don't Want to Talk About it -- The first of the 3 "new" songs. This updated (1989) version of an older song is just set to a (then) current soft rock synthesized sound. This is a bit pointless, since I don't really care for either version of the song.

11. This Old Heart of Mine -- Another dance pop/rocker with Ron Isley. Still has a bit of that new soft rock sound, but a bit more lively. Good but not great.

12. Downtown Train -- The song this collection was named after starts out as a moody ballad and turns into a mid tempo pop tune much in the "Out of Order" style.

Well, basically, I can't argue that obviously there are many hits missing, even in the shorter period covered. If this was only intended to be a sampler, I think it would've been a better idea to cram it with bigger hits.

Possibly take off "Killing of Georgie" and the new "I Don't Wanna Talk About it," and from the late 70s, include the hard rocking "Hot Legs," and the disco themed "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." From the 80's, bigger rock hits like "Love Touch" "Tonight I'm Yours," the cover of "All Right Now," and especially the super catchy dance pop of "Some Guys Have All the Luck" is missed.

I also think it relied a little too heavily on the soft side of Rod, with only three songs being rockers to any extent (tracks 1, 5, 6). Adding some of the afforementioned songs would've helped round that out. Still, fot what is here, it's pretty good.

Great!

This is a very good compilation, even if incomplete. No one disc can contain all of Rod Stewart's hits, so you may want to get another of his greatest hit CDs, to supplement some songs that aren't on this CD. Strictly speaking, though, this CD has many great songs and I highly recommend it.

Infatuating.

"Rod Stewart" has numerous collections out, but of them all I got this one. Obviously it's missing alot of hits, but it just happens to include most of my favorites. It also seems to have a few songs from each decade of his popularity, the 70's thru the 90's, which is nice. "Stay With Me" and "Tonight's The Night (gonna be alright)" are old hits. "Passion" and "Young Turks" are good disco/80's era tunes. Plus some recent stuff with "Forever Young" and "I Don't Want To Talk About It". It's only 12 tracks long, but that's two more than the old "Greatest Hits" album. Of course other collections have other songs, but for me, I'll catch the "Downtown Train".