Song: This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak For You)
Artist(s): Rod Stewart and Ronald Isley
Original artist(s): The Isley Brothers
The songlist of Rod Stewart is peppered with cover versions. But, for me, four stand out. In no
particular order they are: The First Cut is The Deepest (originally by Cat Stevens); Handbags and
Gladrags (written by Mike Dabo the one-time lead singer of Manfred Mann and performed by
Chris Farlowe); Have I Told You Lately? (Van Morrison); and This Old Heart of Mine (originally by
The Isley Brothers).
Here, I plan to concentrate on the latter although I expect the others may feature at some point
in the future.
This Old Heart of Mine was composed by the heartbeat of Motown, Holland-Dozier-Holland.
They had intended for it to be performed by The Supremes, but The Isley Brothers ended up
getting the nod. It was their first record on Motown. It peaked at No 12 on the Billboard Hot
100.
For years I was convinced that the lyric was Weeps For You not Is Weak for You. My version still
seems to make sense.
Rod Stewart did a cover of the Isleys song on his album Atlantic Crossing. He would release it as
a single in 1989. Some 23 years after the original Isleys hit he linked up with original Isleys
member Ronald for a version that peaked at No 10.
This Old Heart has been covered many times by artists but a version I would like to draw your
attention to is by Rag’n’ Bone Man. He performed it on Jools Holland’s annual Hootenanny
Show as the year 2021 gave way to 2022. If you like Rag’s singing voice you will probably like this.
