The first single from Rod Stewart’s album A Spanner in the Works, the Tom Petty composition “Leave Virgina Alone,” could be considered his first single in a very long time so greatly aligned with the remembered sound of Rod’s “classic” period of folk-tinged rock (1969-72). It’s almost totally acoustic, save a few notable guitar lines that sort of emulate Ron Wood’s slide work on early Rod albums.
I actually have this on cassingle (or at least I had it). I ran out and bought it after I saw Rod debut the single in the US on an episode of Saturday Night Live. As I recall, I was immediately struck by how joyous he seemed during the performance, and how well that lifted the song up. The recorded version is a bit more subtle than the SNL one: Rod gives a restrained, straight-ahead performance that, interestingly, leans towards his more ballad-related deliveries even with the bright, fast-paced tempo of the backing track. Stewart’s focus here is on softer tones, the enunciation of (and sometimes lingering on) each syllable, with no real vocal gymnastics or improvisation — which are hallmarks of his “rocker” vocals. He really only deals out louder expressions in the song’s final minute, during the final repetition of the chorus. All in all, it’s a solid song with a fitting vocal performance that Rod makes sound so easy. It was a definite “should have been” hit, but peaked at only #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
