A Spanner in the Works


A Spanner in the Works is a studio album released by Rod Stewart on 29 May 1995. It is Stewart's seventeenth studio album and ended a four-year gap since his previous studio album. At the time it was Stewart's longest break between albums. It was released on Warner Bros. Records in The United States, The United Kingdom, and Japan. Five singles were released: "You're The Star", "Leave Virginia Alone", "This", "Lady Luck", and "Purple Heather".

Content

The album includes covers of Bob Dylan's "Sweetheart Like You" and The Blue Nile's "The Downtown Lights". The song "Muddy, Sam, And Otis", is his tribute to Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding. Track 12, later released as a single featuring the Scottish Euro '96 Football Squad, "Purple Heather" is a folk song that normally goes by the name "Wild Mountain Thyme". It is often credited as traditional, but was written by The McPeakes. "Leave Virginia Alone" was written by Tom Petty and recorded for his album Wildflowers, but was left off the finished album and given to Stewart instead.

Track listing

Personnel

The album achieved a Gold certification in both the US and UK. In those countries it would peak at No. 35 and No. 4 respectively.
YearSongRank
1995"Leave Virginia Alone"52
1995"You're the Star"19 53
1995"This"119
1995"Lady Luck"39 56 65
1996"Purple Heather" 16

Certifications