Song Anatomy ● 'Hot Legs' - Rod Stewart
ROD STEWART / Atlantic Records Publicity Photo - credit: Tony Duran / IVOX MEDIA collection
Song Anatomy ● 'Hot Legs' - Rod Stewart
The Song● Hot Legs
Writer● Rod Stewart
Producer● Tom Dowd
Recorded● Spring 1977 in Toronto
Released● Fall, 1977
Players●
:: Rod Stewart -- vocals
:: Jim Cregan -- guitar
:: Gary Grainger -- guitar
:: Billy Peek -- guitar
:: Phil Chen -- bass
:: Carmine Appice -- drums
Album● Foot Loose & Fancy Free (Warner Bros)
Foot Loose & Fancy Free● Rod Stewart
Foot Loose & Fancy Free is the eighth studio album by Rod Stewart, released in November 1977 on Riva Records in the UK and Warner Bros in the US. The album is the second-to-last album of Stewart's acclaimed 1970s albums, beginning with Atlantic Crossing and including the platinum-selling A Night on the Town. The album contains elements of hard rock ("Hot Legs"), funk rock ("You're Insane"), progressive rock via Motown ("You Keep Me Hanging On"), and Stewart's signature ballad ("You're in My Heart").
The song “Hot Legs” is the second single from Rod Stewart's Foot Loose & Fancy Free album, which hit Number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Number Five in the U.K.
Stewart notes that he wanted a crunchy, upbeat track to offset the ballads that were also part of the album -- "This is what rock-and-roll is all about for me: raw, with plenty of fighting guitars and a steady backbeat courtesy of (drummer) Carmine Appice -- known for his short arms and long pockets."
Foot Loose & Fancy Free was one of Stewart's most successful albums, reaching Number Two on the Billboard 200 and selling more than three million copies -- his top seller up to that point. The album reached Number Three in the U.K.
In 1993, Stewart recorded a live version during his MTV Unplugged session which appeared on the album Unplugged...and Seated. Since the original recording, the lyrics in the last verse have been changed.
The lead guitar that is prominent throughout the song was performed by Billy Peek, a Saint Louis, Missouri native who was in Stewart's band in the mid-seventies.
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