Rod Stewart and the Christmas shopping cart

Behind every rock star lurks a lounge singer and the latest to admit to this is Rod Stewart. The gravely voice behind Do Ya Think I’m Sexy and Maggie May finally gives vent to his yearning with It Had to be You. Sub-titled The Great American Songbook, the wondrous collections of standards is sweet, romantic and as Bill Zehme says in the liner notes, "stays in your head forever." And what are the songs most likely to stay in your head? This album says these are the classic works of the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Sammy Fain, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael and other great American composers.

I heartily agree. For All We Know, I’ll Be Seeing You, Moonglow, It Had to Be You, The Way You Look Tonight, That Old Feeling, That’s All, You Go to My Head, You Can’t Take That Away from Me, Everytime We Say Goodbye, The Nearness of You, We’ll Be Together Again, The Very Thought of You and These Foolish Things are songs of such timeless elegance and penetrating insight into the vagaries of being in love. Beats there a heart who never found himself in any of these melodies? Not likely.

Stewart is no Sinatra but he sings with a rakish charm that is especially appealing. He also has the sensibility unique to saloon singers that turns the exploration of pain into an artform. He must have felt and seen a lot. And he bares them through these songs. He gives enduring gratitude to his family for "vocalizing on many of these songs at Christmas parties and other festive occasions when I was but a mere lad." And in my heart I also say thanks to parents who gave me the privilege of being able to love these songs.

Add this to your shopping cart. This is one more album you should not be without.

Speaking of the shopping cart, it is now only nine days to go till Christmas day and since music is the kind of gift that keeps on giving, aside from being reasonable priced, easy to get and easy to wrap, here are some releases you might want and consider for your special love ones.

If you have a music buff with really discriminating taste in your list and you want to splurge, there is the Jazz Café Series from Sony, which is made up of four compilation albums with some of the greatest jazz recordings of all time from Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughn, Thelonious Monk, Dave Bruback, Louie Armstrong, Chet Baker and the list just goes on and on with cuts like Autumn Leaves, The Nearness of You, Take Five, It Had to be You and so many more. The albums Jazz Cappuccino, Jazz Latte, Jazz Espresso and Jazz Mocha are sold separately but the entire set will surely be very warmly appreciated.

Others you might want to check out are: Regine Velasquez Greatest Hits, an audio visual anthology with that hot video of Sa Aking Pag-iisa with awardwinning hunk Richard Gomez, Josh Groban because he is the hot, young idol of the moment and he can really sing.

Better yet, get his video collection with O Holy Night if it is already available; Romance features 50 of the beautiful love songs recorded by the great Frank Sinatra. Mom and Dad will love this and so will many others who take to listening to Sinatra when their love lives are going wrong; Definitive Collection by Stevie Wonder is Motown history by a truly fine artist. Cuts range from the enthusiastic Fingertips of a gawky blind child prodigy to pop wonders like My Cherie Amour and the sophisticated Lately.

Then there’s The Greatest Hits Series, a two-volume video of the successful concert starring Rico Puno, Hajji Alejandro and Rey Valera performing music from the ‘70’s; Elvis: 30 No.1 Hits, the Presley all-hit collection; 25 Years, 25 Hits the Silver Album, the best of Megastar Sharon Cuneta from Dear Heart to Both Sides Now; The Chicago story, the Complete Greatest Hits, almost 40 years of hits from the most successful white soul band in pop music history; Got to Believe in Magic by Willy Cruz and Serenity Rush by Jim Chappel, if you want soothing piano music.

And not to forget, for your favorite teenager: Unbreakable Vol. 1. Greatest Hit by the boy group of the moment, Westlife. It has If I Let You Go, I Lay My Love on You, Queen of My Heart and others. You might also want to consider two new solo outings, Justified by N’Sync Justin Timberlake and Now or Never by Backstreet Boy Nick Carter.