Waiting for Suggestions

Rod Stewart : Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?( album version)

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On November 10, 1978 Rod Stewart released his new single "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?". The song still haunts Rod Stewart, who is expected to relive his disco days every night he performs.

I feel bad for any man who sang along to the chorus while making his moves on the dance floor. "If you want my body and you think I'm sexy Come on, sugar, tell me so" is not something any man should say out loud. "If you really need me, just reach out and touch me Come on, honey, tell me so" is repetitive and also an embarrassment. And yet. And yet, this tune is an infectious marvel full of hooks. Isn't that what pop music does best?

That there is no way the guy who wrote "Maggie May" would never seriously write something this insipid has led some critics to suggest the whole thing is a spoof.  Co-writer Carmen Appice agrees, I think.

"This was a story of a guy meeting a chick in a club. At that time, that was a cool saying. If you listen to the lyrics, 'She sits alone, waiting for suggestions, he's so nervous...' it's the feelings of what was going on in a dance club. The guy sees a chick he digs, she's nervous and he's nervous and she's alone and doesn't know what's going on, then they end up at his place having sex, and then she's gone."  

It has been noted that Stewart created parts of the song through musical plagiarism. A copyright infringement lawsuit by Brazilian musician Jorge Ben Jor claimed the chorus of the song had been derived from his song "Taj Mahal" ( listen at 2:25 below) . The case was "settled amicably" according to Jorge Ben Jor, in Ben Jor's favor. Stewart admitted in his 2012 autobiography to "unconscious plagiarism" of the Ben Jor song, which he had heard while attending the Rio Carnival in 1978.

 He also admitted that he had consciously lifted the song's signature synthesizer riff from the string arrangement on Bobby Womack's "(If You Want My Love) Put Something Down On It" ( you can hear it at :28  below). Stewart contends that it is legal to lift a line from any song's arrangement as long as the core melody line isn't copied.

A #1 smash in the UK and the US, royalties from the song were donated to the United Nations Children's Fund.