Rod Stewart feared hit song was cursed
Oct. 8, 2012, 8:44 AM EST
Veteran singer Rod Stewart feared his popular hit Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? was "cursed" after he received a barrage of criticism over the lyrics and the advertising campaign, as well as facing accusations of plagiarism.
The song was released in 1978 and shot to the top of the U.K. singles chart despite being slated by critics for its provocative lyrics and a promotional drive featuring Stewart in a skin-tight Spandex outfit.
Stewart also became tangled in a legal battle over the melody after Brazilian musician Jorge Ben Jor claimed the tune had been copied from his song Taj Mahal, and the rocker admits he began to fear the track was tainted with bad luck.
In an extract from his book, Rod: The Autobiography, which has been serialised in Britain's Daily Mail, he writes, "Music critics... wrote off Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? as the work of a terrible show-off. It was only a pop record, but you'd have thought I'd poisoned the water supply... It didn't help that the marketing campaign for the single had me stretched out in full Spandex-clad glory beneath the slogan 'Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?'
"Just to complicate matters, the Brazilian musician Jorge Ben Jor eventually pointed out the similarity of the melody in the chorus to a song of his... Bang to rights, too. I held my hand up straight away. Not that I'd stood in the studio and said, 'Here, I know we'll use that tune from Taj Mahal as the chorus. The writer lives in Brazil, so he'll never find out.' Clearly the melody had lodged itself in my memory and then resurfaced. Unconscious plagiarism, plain and simple. I handed over the royalties, again wondering whether Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? was partly cursed."
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