VOA常速英语:Rod Stewart Pays Homage to Soul Masters on New CD, 'Soulbook'

"These songs and singers were the oxygen that fueled my passion to sing," Stewart says.

Singer Rod Stewart does some serious soul-searching on a collection he says is the album he waited his all life to record, Soulbook. 

Rod Stewart's career keeps soaring higher and higher after the release of a series of albums dedicated to the Great American Songbook.  All four collections reached the Top 5 on Billboard's Pop Albums Chart.  

At 64, Stewart takes another trip down memory lane with remakes of classic soul from the '60s and '70s.

On one of two duets from Soulbook, Rod Stewart and Jennifer Hudson sing "Let It Be Me."  Stewart also teams up with Mary J. Blige on The Stylistics' hit "You Make Me Feel Brand New."

Two legendary Motown artists appear alongside Stewart, including Smokey Robinson on "Tracks Of My Tears," and Stevie Wonder on "My Cherie Amour."

Rod Stewart always had an ear for great soul music.  Some of his biggest hits were remakes of soul tunes by Sam Cooke and The Isley Brothers as well as Motown's famed songwriting duo Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield, whose credits include hits for Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, and The Temptations.

Rod revisits the golden age of soul with a blues-rock rendition of Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World," and the Strong-Whitfield catalogue for The Temptations' Number One single, "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)."

Stewart describes Soulbook as a tribute to the masters of soul.  He says, "These songs and singers were the oxygen that fueled my passion to sing."