‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ is the third studio album by British singer-songwriter Rod Stewart, which was released by Mercury Records on 28 May 1971. It combines hard rock, folk and blues and reached number one in both the UK and US charts as well as third place in the Jazz & Pop Critics Poll for the best album of 1971. It was a continued success with critics and was ranked 172nd on Rolling Stone's list of the ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’ in 2003, which was moved to 177th in the 2020 reissue.
History
The album is a mix of rock, country, blues, soul and folk and features Stewart's breakthrough hit ‘Maggie May’ as well as ‘Reason to Believe’, a song from Tim Hardin's 1966 debut album. ‘Reason to Believe’, featuring Pete Sears on piano, was released as the album's first single, with ‘Maggie May’ as the B-side; however, ‘Maggie May’ became more popular and was a No. 1 hit in both the UK and the US.
The album includes a version of Arthur Crudup's ‘That's All Right (Mama)’ (the first single for Elvis Presley) and a cover version of the Bob Dylan song ‘Tomorrow Is a Long Time’, which was first released on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II in 1971.
All five members of the Faces (of which Stewart was the lead singer at the time) are featured on the album, with guitarist/bassist Ronnie Wood and keyboardist Ian McLagan on Hammond B3 organ making the most appearances. Due to contractual restrictions, the line-up lists were somewhat vague, and it was unclear whether the version of the Motown hit ‘(I Know) I'm Losing You’ was recorded by the full Faces line-up. Other contributors included Ray Jackson on mandolin (although Stewart has reportedly forgotten his name and only mentions ‘the mandolin player in Lindisfarne’ on the cover) and Micky Waller on drums. Maggie Bell did backing vocals (labelled on the cover as ‘vocal abrasives’) on the title track, and Madeline Bell sang backing vocals on the next track, ‘Seems Like A Long Time’. Pete Sears played all the piano on the album, with the exception of the track ‘I'm Losing You’, which featured Ian McLagan on piano, along with the Faces as a band.
The album reached number one in both the UK (for six weeks) and the US (for four weeks), while ‘Maggie May’ topped the singles charts in both countries. The Temptations cover ‘I Know I'm Losing You’ reached the top 40 in the US at number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album was a continued success with critics, including a ranking of #172 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003, a ranking it retained in a 2012 revised list, dropping slightly to #177 in a 2020 revised list. In 1992, the album was ranked number one in Jimmy Guterman's book The Best Rock ‘N’ Roll Records of All Time: A Fan's Guide to the Stuff You Love. In 2005, it was ranked 99th in a poll by the British television station Channel 4 to determine the 100 best albums of all time.
Reviews
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: ‘Without changing his approach much, Rod Stewart perfected his blend of hard rock, folk and blues on his masterpiece Every Picture Tells a Story.’ Nicholas Oliver wrote in The Rough Guide to Rock (1999) that Stewart's commercial breakthrough came at an ‘artistic peak’, adding that it contains well-chosen covers and strong original material. Martin C. Strong of The Great Rock Discography (2006) called the album the creative pinnacle of Stewart's career, calling it ‘a masterclass in roots rock.’[11] ‘Mandolin Wind’ was singled out by both Oliver and Strong as the best original song, with Oliver calling it ‘unrivalled’ and Strong calling it one of Stewart's ‘most perfectly conceived originals’.
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