Rod Stewart on track to top British charts with new swing album

Jonas Mohr/Warner Records

Rod Stewart is headed for his first #1 album in nearly five years in his native U.K.

Rod’s new album Swing Fever, a collaboration with Squeeze keyboardist-turned-TV host and bandleader Jools Holland, is on track to top the charts across the pond, according to the U.K.’s Official Charts Company.

If it succeeds, this will be Rod’s 11th number one career album in the U.K. and Holland’s first. Rod’s last album to top the charts was 2019’s You’re In My Heart: Rod Stewart with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. That record consisted of Rod’s original vocal tracks for hits like “Maggie May” and “Forever Young” blended with new arrangements by the orchestra.

Swing Fever is a collection of upbeat, big band-style recordings of songs from the ’20s and ’30s, like “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Pennies from Heaven” and “Lullaby of Broadway.”

Holland has released over a dozen albums, both solo and collaborations, since leaving Squeeze, but so far the highest he’s ever gotten on the U.K. charts has been #5.