4 Songs You Didn’t Know Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck Wrote Together

Two rock greats Rod Stewart and the late Jeff Beck first joined forces in the late 1960s when the latter recruited Stewart for his post-Yardbirds project, the Jeff Beck Group. The move would not only mark Stewart’s big break, but it would also mean the start of a beautiful working relationship between the two.

Separately, the duo would have their own highly successful careers – Stewart, as an unmatched rock vocalist and frontman, and Beck as one of rock’s greatest guitarists. But together, they made tremendous music, specifically co-writing a handful of songs for two of Beck’s acclaimed releases, the 1968 album Truth and the 1969 project Beck-Ola.

1. “Let Me Love You” – Jeff Beck (1968)

Written by Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart

Let me love you baby, / You’re drivin’ my poor heart crazy / When I’m with you woman, / My whole life seems so hazy, Stewart’s rapturous rasp rips through a hefty blues-rock arrangement.

Beck’s Truth featured three Beck-Stewart compositions – all were credited to a “Jeffrey Rod,” a songwriting pseudonym the pair adopted – one of which was “Let Me Love You.” The ferocious tune is a reworking of Buddy Guy’s blues classic of the same name.

2. “Blues Deluxe” – Jeff Beck (1968)

Written by Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, B.B. King, and Johnny Pate

I don’t know too much about love, people / But I sure think I’ve got it bad / Some people say love is just a gamble / But whatever it is, it’s about to drive poor me mad, yes, it is, Stewart croaks against the piano-powered blues production, “Blues Deluxe.”

Another Beck-Stewart work on Truth, “Blues Deluxe” is again a product of the two re-imagining the B.B. King song, “Gambler’s Blues.”

3. “Rock My Plimsoul” – Jeff Beck (1967)

Written by Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Curtis Jones, Lil’ Son Jackson, B.B. King, and Joe Josea

You can rock me, rock me all night long / Keep on rocking me baby, rock me all night long / ‘Cause you know what, when you rock me / My poor back it ain’t got a bone, Stewart sings along to Beck’s rollicking guitar prowess.

The pair penned the Truth tune, “Rock My Plimsoul,” as a reworking of the blues tune “Rock Me Baby,” another B.B. King classic.

4. “Spanish Boots” – Jeff Beck (1969)

Written by Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, and Ron Wood

I used to work and take a salary / In a hole up near a foundry / But it did not take me too long / To get my boots on a “So long!” / Long Spanish boots on a “So long!,” Stewart matter-of-factly wails on “Spanish Boots.”

Beck and Stewart penned the tune alongside their then-fellow Jeff Beck Group member and now-Rolling Stone guitarist Ron Wood. The song was featured on Beck’s Beck-Ola.

(Photo by Robin Platzer/IMAGES/Getty Images)