Rod Stewart
Stewart's distinctive gritty voice first came to prominence on guitarist Jeff Beck's two post-Yardbirds albums, "Truth" (1968) and "Beck-ola" (1969).
While with Beck, he began recording solo albums that were more folk- and ballad-based than Beck's guitar-heavy sound. When Beck and Stewart split, Stewart and former Beck bassist Ronnie Wood joined the Small Faces.
Wood took over on guitar and the group was renamed simply the Faces. Stewart issued solo and Faces albums simultaneously, yielding favorites like "Gasoline Alley" (1970), "Every Picture Tells a Story" (1971), "Maggie May" (1971), a cover of the Temptations' "(I Know I'm) Losing You" (1971) and "You Wear It Well" (1972).
The Faces had broken up by 1977, but Stewart had reached the top of the charts with "Tonight's the Night," the most popular song of 1976. The hits continued: "You're in My Heart" (No. 4, 1977), "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" (No. 1, 1978), "Passion" (No. 5, 1980) and "Young Turks" (No. 5, 1981).
In 1989, a duet version of "This Old Heart of Mine" with Ronald Isley reached No. 10; a 1976 version by Stewart had reached No. 83 and the Isley Brothers' original had charted No. 12 in 1966.