Rod Stewart – Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? (Official Video) [HD Remaster]

“Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” Single by Rod Stewart from the album Blondes Have More Fun

B-side “Dirty Weekend” (UK) / “Scarred and Scared” (US)
Released 10 November 1978 (UK)
Label Warner Bros.
Songwriters Rod Stewart, Carmine Appice, Duane Hitchings
Producer Tom Dowd
Charted No.1 in US, No.1 in UK, No.9 in West Germany, No.1 in Australia, No.1 in Canada; No.2 in France, No.1 in Spain

The song was released as the first single from Blondes Have More Fun in November 1978. It spent one week atop the UK Singles Chart in December 1978 and four weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 in February 1979. Billboard ranked it number four on its Top Singles of 1979 year-end chart.

Rod Stewart was known for his soulful blues and folk ballads, but this song was a disco departure, and it gave him a new look. He attracted many new fans, but alienated many of his old ones, who had no interest in disco and fondly remembered Rod as a member of the Faces, where he earned a reputation as hard-rocking party animal.

The distinctive riff came from an instrumental song called “Taj Mahal” by a Brazilian musician named Jorge Ben. When Ben filed suit, Stewart agreed to give proceeds from the song to UNICEF. He later recalled in his book, Rod: The Autobiography: “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.”

There is a blues guitarist named Taj Mahal who made his own version of the song using this same riff. The title, and also the only lyrics in the song, is “Jorge Ben.”

This went along with the Hollywood lifestyle Stewart had adopted. He moved from England to Los Angeles in 1975 and quickly fit in with the glamorous crowd. Dating blonde models was his specialty.
This was promoted by an unusual “video-within-a-video” showing people watching Stewart perform the song on a “television screen.” The concert footage was taped first – whenever Stewart forgot the lyrics, he’d turn his face away from the camera.

Stewart was ahead of his time from a marketing standpoint. Not only did he make a video for this song before MTV was even a glimmer, but he also released a limited edition 12″ version that was guaranteed to be a collector’s item because only 300,000 were made. The album was also released as a limited edition picture disc with graphics printed directly on the vinyl as well as a cardboard pull-out of Stewart’s face. 100,000 copies were pressed.