Terrible Song of the Day: Rod Stewart – “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?”

In 1978, a year after the release of Saturday Night Fever and the peak of disco fever, Rod Stewart released the single "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" from ninth solo album Blondes Have More Fun.

As his tune climbed the charts, Stewart was accused of pulling a "me too!" and shamelessly latching onto the disco fad, thereby betraying his Faces-era rock 'n' roll side.

Stewart defended himself against these charges by pointing out that other respectable artists like Paul McCartney ("Silly Love Songs") and the Rolling Stones ("Emotional Rescue") were also dabbling (with varying degrees of plausibility) in the disco format.

Still, that doesn't mean that Rod's tune—regardless of genre—isn't a terrible one. The chorus contains possibly the lamest come-on in the history of come-ons, and is especially loathsome coming from the guy who wrote the one night stand classic "Stay with Me".

But the worst part about "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" is that it's not even an original song. The chorus was directly ripped off from Brazilian samba-rocker Jorge Ben Jor's 1972 hit "Taj Mahal". Threatened with a plagiarism lawsuit shortly after "Sexy" took off, Stewart acknowledged the musical theft and subsequently donated all royalties to the United Nations Children's Fund.

In 1995, Stewart confessed that he had heard "Taj Mahal" on an earlier trip to Brazil but was so drunk at the time that he didn't grasp the plagiarism when he later wrote "Sexy". If only he had been too drunk to record it.