Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Rod Stewart, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”

36 years ago today, Rod Stewart found his way into the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 for the third time in his career, earning a platinum single for his trouble as well as more than a few sneers from fans who didn’t much care for Rod the Mod going a bit disco.

The opening track on Stewart’s 1978 album, Blondes Have More Fun, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” was co-written by Rod with Duane Hitchings and Carmine Appice, the latter two musicians having worked together as members of Cactus, but as Stewart admitted much later (and after a copyright infringement suit was filed), a portion of the melody was unconsciously plagiarized from the song “Taj Mahal,” written by Brazilian musician Jorge Ben Jor. But that, of course, wasn’t the big controversy when “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” first hit the airwaves.

Although it’s as catchy as all get-out even now, it’s undeniable that “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” sounds way different from Stewart’s previous pair of #1 hits, “Maggie May” and “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright),” and many of his longtime fans grouched about how he’d gone disco. It might’ve sounded a bit that way, but in a 2007 interview, co-writer Hitchings looked back on the track and said that “Rod, in his brilliance, decided to do a spoof on disco.” Even if he’d been serious about it, though, it’s not as though others in his peer group hadn’t taken their own shot at combining their existing sound with a disco beat and found both commercial and creative success in the process.

However you may view it, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” remains one of Stewart’s signature hits and continues to be one of the songs most associated with him…for better or worse.