He was born in 1948 as Stefan Demetre Georgiou and in his life time
became Cat Stevens and the Yusaf Islam. But during the 1970s he was Cat Stevens
who made singing seem effortless. His albums and singles were, and still are a
delight to hear.
Just take a look at these classic songs
that Cat gave to the 1960s.
Matthew And Son, I love My Dog and albums
called Matthew And Son.
But Cat hit the 1970s running. His very
first single to UK chart was in 1970 with Lady D’Arbanville from the album Mona
Bone Jakon on Island Records. The song was all about his teenage short lived
girlfriend Patti D’Arbanville who in the 1980s had a relationship with Miami
Vice Don Johnson. She was also the inspiration for Wild World that was a big
U.S. hit that year.
1971 the excellent album Teaser And The
Firecat was released which gave us the classic Cat single called Moonshadow.
Cat said on a TV show in 2009.
"I was on a holiday in Spain. I was a
kid from the West End (of London) - bright lights, et cetera. I never got to
see the moon on its own in the dark, there were always streetlamps . So there I
was on the edge of the water on a beautiful night with the moon glowing, and
suddenly I looked down and saw my shadow. I thought that was so cool, I'd never
seen it before."
The single only reached No. 22 and the next
single Peace Train failed to chart completely in the UK.
1972 and Cat was having problem as he Can’t Keep It In. The song reached No. 13 and was one of those songs sung in the
playground for some reason.
His other hit that year was Morning Has Broken.
Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the
morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the
Word.
In 1974 he had success with the Oh Very
Young song in many territories, but in the UK it was Another Saturday Night
which was a remake of the 1963 hit by Sam Cooke. The song was much heavier than
the original, and was on the verge of dancing too.
His last top fifty sing hit was in 1977
with Remember The Days Of The Old School Yard from the album Izitso. In the U.S.
The song features Elkie Brooks too. Cat Stevens had eight top thirty hits and
in the UK he had five. Album wise everybody seems to own a Cat Stevens album, especially the Greatest Hits, which was released in 1975.