Atlantic Crossing

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Atlantic Crossing
Studio album by Rod Stewart
Released	August 15, 1975
Recorded	1975
Genre	Rock
Length	44:02
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer(s)	Tom Dowd
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone (not rated) link Robert Christgau (B+) link
Rod Stewart chronology
Smiler (1974)	Atlantic Crossing (1975)	A Night on the Town (1976)

Atlantic Crossing is Rod Stewart's sixth album, released in 1975, and peaking at #9 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

The title indicated Stewart's new commercial and artistic direction, a double pun on both his crossing over to Warner Brothers and on his departure to escape the tax structure of the United Kingdom for the sunnier pastures of the jet-set life in Los Angeles, applying for American citizenship at this time. The album was divided into a fast side and a slow side, apparently at the suggestion of Stewart's then-girlfriend, Swedish actress Britt Ekland. Stewart would repeat the format for his next two albums.

Stewart jettisoned his association with Ron Wood and the stable of musicians who had been his core collaborators on his classic run of albums fusing soul and folk on Mercury Records. Instead, he used a group of high-ticket session musicians, including the cream from Memphis with The Memphis Horns and three-quarters of Booker T. and the MG's. Produced by Tom Dowd, the famous engineer and producer on records by so many of Rod's heroes during Dowd's time on staff at Atlantic Records, the album continued his approach as at Mercury, but with more polish, more of a deliberate commercial sheen. Atlantic Crossing inaugurated the next phase of Stewart's career, that of a glamorous front-rank rock personality, a constant figure in various tabloids, underlining Stewart's appeal and star power. Stewart would confirm this new direction by the end of year with the announcement of his exit from The Faces, a band of mates rather than hired hands, and as the decade progressed by embracing popular trends in hard rock and disco more fitfully.

Stewart continued his mastery of ballad singing as a track from this album, "I Don't Want To Talk About It," hit #1 in the UK, in tandem with "The First Cut Is the Deepest."

[edit] Credits

• Rod Stewart, vocals
• Pete Carr, guitars
• Jesse Ed Davis, guitars
• Steve Cropper, guitars
• Fred Tackett, guitars
• Jimmy Johnson, guitars
• Barry Beckett, keyboards
• Albhy Galuten, keyboards
• Donald "Duck" Dunn, bass
• Lee Sklar, bass
• Bob Glaub, bass
• David Hood, bass
• David Lindley, mandolin, violin
• Al Jackson, drums
• Roger Hawkins, drums
• Nigel Olsson, drums
• Willie Correa, drums
• The Memphis Horns, trumpet, trombone, saxophone
• Cindy & Bob Singers, The Pets & The Clappers, backing vocals

String arrangements by Arif Mardin and James Mitchell

[edit] Track listing

1. "Three Time Loser" (Stewart) – 4:03
2. "Alright For An Hour" (Stewart, Jesse Ed Davis) – 4:17
3. "All In The Name Of Rock & Roll" (Stewart) – 5:02
4. "Drift Away" (Mentor Williams) – 3:43
5. "Stone Cold Sober" (Stewart, Steve Cropper}– 4:00
6. "I Don't Want To Talk About It" (Danny Whitten) – 4:47
7. "It's Not The Spotlight" (Barry Goldberg, Gerry Goffin) – 4:47
8. "This Old Heart of Mine" (Holland-Dozier-Holland, Sylvia Moy) – 4:04
9. "Still Love You" (Stewart) – 5:08
10. "Sailing" (Gavin Sutherland) – 4:37