1974 Rod Stewart – Atlantic Crossing

Atlantic Crossing is Rod Stewart’s sixth album, released in 1975. It peaked at number one in the UK (his fifth solo album to do so), and number nine on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

The title indicated Stewart’s new commercial and artistic direction, referring to both his crossing over to Warner Brothers and on his departure to escape the 83 per cent top rate of income tax introduced by British Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson for the jet-set lifestyle in Los Angeles (where he had applied for American citizenship at this time). The album was divided into a slow side and a fast side, apparently at the suggestion of Stewart’s then-girlfriend, Swedish actress Britt Ekland. Stewart would repeat the format for his next two albums.

With Atlantic Crossing, Stewart ended his association with Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and the stable of musicians who had been his core collaborators on his classic run of albums for Mercury Records, fusing soul and folk. Instead, he used a group of session musicians, including The Memphis Horns and three-quarters of Booker T. and the MG’s. The album was produced by Tom Dowd, the famous engineer and producer on records by so many of Stewart’s heroes during Dowd’s time on staff at Atlantic Records. The only song performed from this album on The Faces’ final US tour in autumn 1975 was “Three Time Loser”, and the rest of the group heavily disliked Stewart’s change in musical direction on this album. Following the success of the album, and his move to the U.S., Stewart announced his exit from the Faces by the end of the year.

“Sailing” was a number one hit in the UK in September 1975, and returned to the UK Top 3 a year later when it was used as the theme for the BBC series Sailor; both acoustic and electric guitars in the song were played by Pete Carr. In 1977, almost two years after the album was released, Stewart scored another UK number one from the album with the double A-side single “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” and “The First Cut Is the Deepest”.