“The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)” by Rod Stewart
Dedicated to Rod Stewart’s friend, George, “The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)” speaks about his life and death. George was a gay man that came out to his parents but unfortunately, they were unable to understand. The tension between George and his parents, caused him to move to Manhattan, New York.
He was a kind soul and brought the party with him wherever he went. This is why in the song, Stewart talks about no party ever being complete if George wasn’t present.
In an interview with The Guardian, Stewart said that he wasn’t at the scene of George’s death, so he had input “poetic license” in penning this song. We find an example of this poetic license when Stewart portrayed his friend’s killer(s) with a certain level of innocence, showing that they had no intention of killing him, but things took a bad turn fast.
After all is said and done, Stewart sums up his tribute song with words of wisdom George had told him once:
Was “The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)” a single release?
Yes. On June 18 of 1976, it was launched as a single from Rod Stewart’s “A Night on the Town” album.
Writing and Production Credits
Rod wrote “The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)”. It was produced by Tom Dowd.
Genre(s)
- Pop rock
- Soft rock
- Progressive pop
Accolades
Karl Pilkington, an English TV star often referred to the song as one of his favorite songs of all time.
This song was very successful in the United Kingdom. Here, it reached number 2 on the country’s official singles charts (i.e. the UK Singles Charts). In the United States, it enjoyed top-30 status on the Hot 100. It was also a top-40 hit in Netherlands, Canada and Australia.
Cover(s)
Since 1976, there have been a number of popular covers of this song. For example, in 1977, La Quinta Faccia came out with their own version of the song.
