“Every Picture Tells a Story” Original inside cover sleeve.
1971…”Every Picture Tells a Story” Rod Stewart’s third solo album…the second I played on. Inside album cover artwork. I played all the piano on the album as a session player except for “Losing You” which Mac played with the rest of the Faces.
I had left “Stoneground” in California to go back to England and record with Rod at Willesden Studios in London. This was my favorite of the four British made albums I did with Rod. It is considered by many to be the best album Rod ever made. “Maggie May” was a giant hit…the B side was “Reason To Believe”, on which I played piano.
I enjoyed playing with Martin Quittenton…wonderful acoustic guitarist; he and Ron Wood interacted well together. Micky Waller had an amazing feel and always hit the snare in just the right spot…like Charlie Watts. In fact Micky was one of Charlie’s favorite drummers. Micky passed away a few years ago.
Mac played wonderful Hammond B3 on most tracks.
It went to number one on both the UK and U.S. charts and finished third in the Jazz & Pop critics’ poll for best album of 1971. It has been an enduring critical success, including a number 172 ranking on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and inclusion in both 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005) and 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (2008).
It reached the number-one position in both the UK (for six weeks) and the US (four weeks) at the same time that “Maggie May” was topping the singles charts in both territories, making Stewart the first artist to achieve such a feat. It has often been voted among the best British albums of all time.
In 1992, the album was awarded the number-one spot in Jimmy Guterman’s book The Best Rock ‘N’ Roll Records of All Time: A Fan’s Guide to the Stuff You Love.
Every Picture Tells a Story was ranked 99th in a 2005 survey held by British television’s Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.
In 2009 the song “Every Picture Tells a Story” was used for the soundtrack of Rockstar Games’ “Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned”. This album sold 4 million copies worldwide.