Australian singles chart:
The Killing of Georgie entered the Kent Music Report on 15 November 1976 and peaked at #38.
Album:
The song is on A Night on the Town which entered the Kent Music Report album charts on 28 June 1976. It reached #1 on 30 August 1976 where it remained for 10 weeks.
Songwriter:
Rod Stewart
Producer:
Tom Dowd
Record label of Australian release:
Warner Bros
Songfacts:
This 1976 song about the murder of a gay man by a New Jersey gang was one of the first songs to deal with the subject of homophobia. In the May 1995 issue of Mojo, Stewart explained: “That was a true story about a gay friend of The Faces. He was especially close to me and Mac. But he was shot or knifed, I can’t remember which. That was a song I wrote totally on my own over the chord of open E.”
Asked about writing a song with a gay theme, Stewart said, “It’s probably because I was surrounded by gay people at that stage. I had a gay PR man, a gay manager. Everyone around me was gay. I don’t know whether that prompted me into it or not. I think it was a brave step, but it wasn’t a risk. You can’t write a song like that unless you’ve experienced it. But it was a subject that no one had approached before. And I think it still stands up today.”
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/rod-stewart/the-killing-of-georgie-part-i-and-ii
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
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