A Night on the Town is Rod Stewart's seventh album, released on June 18th, 1976. The cover art is based on Pierre-Auguste Renoir's painting Bal du moulin de la Galette, with Stewart inserted in the centre in period costume. On 30 June 2009, Rhino reissued the album as a two-disc CD with bonus tracks. A Night on the Town was Stewart's last UK number-one studio album until Time in 2013.
The album is regarded as one of Stewart's finest. "The Killing of Georgie" is one of Stewart's most hard-hitting sets of lyrics, a melancholic tale of a gay friend who is cast out by his family and becomes a sensation in the New York nightlife, only to be murdered by a New Jersey gang during an attempted robbery. Controversial "Tonight's the Night" was a No. 1 hit but was banned by some radio stations due to the very obvious lyrics about sex and loss of virginity. A cover of Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is the Deepest" was also a success and has since become one of Stewart's signature songs.
Track listing
Original release
2009 re-release
Personnel
- Rod Stewart – vocals
- Donald Dunn, Bob Glaub, David Hood, Lee Sklar, Willie Weeks – bass guitar
- Pete Carr, Steve Cropper, Jesse Ed Davis, David Lindley, Billy Peek, Fred Tackett, Joe Walsh – guitar
- Barry Beckett, David Foster, John Barlow Jarvis, J. Smith – keyboards
- Roger Hawkins, Al Jackson Jr., Andy Newmark, Rick Shlosser – drums
- Joe Lala, Tommy Vig – percussion
- Jimmy Horowitz, Mel Lewis, Arif Mardin – string arrangements
- Tower of Power horn section – French horn
- Plas Johnson, Jerry Jumonville – tenor saxophone
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1976–77)
! scope="col"| Peak<br /> position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
| align="center"| 1
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)
| align="center"| 29
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| align="center"| 23
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1976)
! scope="col"| Peak<br /> position
|-
! scope="row"| Australia Albums (Kent Music Report)
| 2
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 46
|-
! scope="row" | New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 2
|-
! scope="row" | UK Albums (OCC)
| 5
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1977)
! scope="col"| Peak<br /> position
|-
! scope="row"| Australia Albums (Kent Music Report)
| 14
|-
! scope="row" | New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 3
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 31
|}