Forever Young

Stewart wrote this song with his guitarist Jim Cregan and his keyboard player Kevin Savigar. It's one of the songs Stewart is most proud of, as he relates it to his kids. By this time, he was involved in the lives of three of his children: Sean (born 1979) and Kimberly (born 1980) with this first wife, Alana Stewart, and Ruby (born 1987) with Kelly Emberg. (A daughter, Sarah, born in 1963, was given up for adoption). "I love 'Forever Young,' because that was a real heartfelt song about my kids," he told Mojo magazine in 1995 after having two more kids - Renee (born 1992) and Liam (born 1994) with his second wife, Rachel Hunter. "I suddenly realized I'd missed a good five years of Sean and Kimberly's life because I was so busy touring all the time. With these kids now I don't make that mistake – I take them on tour with me, so I can watch them grow up. So that's another favourite. Unfortunately, it wasn't a big hit in England, but it's like a national anthem here (America)."

Stewart was a spry 43 when this song was released in 1988. His first single came out (uneventfully) in 1964; he did time in the Jeff Beck Group and Faces before landing his first solo hit with "Maggie May" in 1971. He hit just about every trend right on target, doing disco when the need arose ("Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?") and conquering MTV with compelling videos and a New Wave sound ("Young Turks"). In the late '80s, a more mature sound was in, with artists like Richard Marx and Steve Winwood leading the way. Stewart fit right in with songs like "Forever Young" and "My Heart Can't Tell You No," the other big hit from the Out Of Order album.

Andy Taylor, who had recently left Duran Duran, played guitar on this track and produced the Out Of Order album along with Stewart and Bernard Edwards of Chic. Taylor and Edwards worked together before in a band called The Power Station, fronted by Robert Palmer. They released an album in 1985 with the hits "Some Like It Hot" and "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" (a cover of a T. Rex song).