To mark Valentine’s Day, Rod Stewart and Jools Holland with his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra release ‘Pennies From Heaven’, their third offering from the exquisite collaborative album Swing Fever – out February 23rd.
The track sees a sensational interpretation of the early American classic written by Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke.
As Jools explains, “It’s such a lovely song and you can do it a lot of different ways. The lyrics are very optimistic and positive, and in the mouth of Rod, they’re like modern poems of the 20th century. It’s an expression of joy and the message of it is, ‘It’s going to be alright.'”
Rod Stewart says, “If you need cheering up and wanna have a laugh and a dance this is the album for you. Jools and I purposely agreed on no slow songs!
In my entire career I’ve never known such joy when recording an album, and that joy I believe radiates through to the listener………..so get ya dancing shoes on here’s ‘Pennies from Heaven’ and she certainly is!”
The song arrives with a fun-filled music video, directed by Jeremy Deller & Jack Cocker, which sees a barn-storming performance featuring Penny Lancaster, as well as a full band and some spectacular swing dance to boot. .
For the first time, Britain’s new partners in swing have united on record to share their peerless dexterity on a tribute to other such truly great songs as ‘Almost Like Being In Love’, ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’’, ‘Frankie And Johnny’, ‘Sentimental Journey’ and ‘Lullaby Of Broadway’.
Jools Holland left Squeeze in the 1980s and formed his Big Band with the help of ex Squeeze drummer, Gilson Lavis. Over the last thirty years his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra have gone on to score numerous platinum and gold albums, which have included collaborations with George Harrison, Amy Winehouse, and countless others, becoming the UK’s most successful recording and touring Big Band. He also hosts the BBC’s longest running music show, ‘Later with Jools Holland’, showcasing and performing with some of the World’s greatest talent, as well as the Annual Hootenanny, which is the UK’s biggest New Year’s Eve television show.
Jools sums up the spontaneous charm of Swing Fever; “The effect that this music has on me, and whenever I put it on where people are, they feel this thing, they want to move. Music is an expression of a lot of different things, and joy is an important part of what it does. You can feel the joy in this music, and it’s unashamed joy as well.”
Swing Fever is available on Black Vinyl, Colour Vinyl, CD & Digital – pre-order HERE.
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