Cat Stevens, Yusuf

Cat Stevens (now Yusuf, of course) has re-recorded his 1970 album, Tea For The Tillerman, in its entirety for the 50th anniversary of the record.

50 years since its release, the original motion picture soundtrack for Hal Ashby’s 1971 classic cult film ‘Harold and Maude’, made up exclusively of songs by Cat Stevens, will be released on 11th February 2022 in new 180g 1LP / 1CD via Island / Cat-O-Log / UMC. The new edition of the soundtrack will combine Cat Stevens’ 9 original songs, as well as dialogue from the film, for the first time.

Cat Stevens quietly retired from his career as a pop star after the release of 1978's Back to Earth to pursue a spiritual path. Stevens became a devout Muslim and adopted the name Yusuf Islam, quietly making spiritually oriented recordings but avoiding the mainstream, especially after the controversy that followed his comments about the fatwa declared against author Salman Rushdie in 1989. However, Yusuf has been quietly inching back into the public eye since he released the album An Other Cup in 2006 and set out on an extensive concert tour documented on the 2009 live disc Roadsinger. Released in 2014, Tell 'Em I'm Gone finds Yusuf in part paying homage to the blues and R&B sounds that inspired him as a young man while also looking back to the canny mixture of pop and folk that informed his best work of the '70s…

Even as a serious-minded singer/songwriter, Cat Stevens never stopped being a pop singer at heart, and with Teaser and the Firecat he reconciled his philosophical interests with his pop instincts. Basically, Teaser's songs came in two modes: gentle ballads that usually found Stevens and second guitarist Alun Davies playing delicate lines over sensitive love lyrics, and uptempo numbers on which the guitarists strummed away and thundering drums played in stop-start rhythms…

Cat Stevens‘ Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman albums will both be reissued as extensive super deluxe edition box sets in December.

Cat Stevens’ 1971 album Teaser and the Firecat will be reissued in November across five physical formats, including TWO super deluxe editions. The classic album includes songs such as ‘Moonshadow’, ‘Peace Train’, ‘Morning Has Broken’ and ‘The Wind’. It has been remastered at Abbey Road Studios, overseen by original album producer, Paul Samwell-Smith and as with previous reissues, an extensive super deluxe edition is the premium offering.

Completists will be happy to own many of the rarities on this four-disc set, including Stevens's first demo session, an unreleased 1970 duet with Elton John, a cover of Fats Domino's "Blue Monday," and several choice live cuts from the late '70s. And it's nice to have an overview of the artist's entire career–from late '60s pop-star wannabe to '70s folk-rock superstar–in one place. But the difference between early Cat Stevens (despite composing hits for others) and post-Tea for the Tillerman Stevens is substantial. The two follow-up LPs were part of a trilogy of brilliance–both musically and lyrically–and any Stevens collection must start there. Nevertheless, surprises and some gems are to be found throughout all four discs–even his most recent recording (as Yusuf Islam) isn't bad. This box set also offers a choice opportunity to reassess a deserving career. (All royalties go to New York City relief victims and orphans and homeless families in underdeveloped countries.)

Yusuf Islam, commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, humanitarian, and education philanthropist. His 1967 debut album reached the top 10 in the UK, and the album's title song "Matthew and Son" charted at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. His albums Tea for the Tillerman (1970) and Teaser and the Firecat (1971) were both certified triple platinum in the US. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and Islamic music. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, and fifteen weeks at number one in the Australian ARIA Charts. He earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in 2005 and 2006 for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", and the song has been a hit for four different artists.