In the 1970s Cat Stevens

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. Again this came from the Teaser album and is probably the record most associated with Cat Stevens.

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.

Cat did not chart in the UK in 1973, but had two hits in the U.S. with Sitting and The Hurt. It was not long before Cat came back in the UK charts with more classics.

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.

Cat became Yusaf in 1978.

Yusuf / Cat Stevens - GTK Interview (1972)