8 in the US where it went gold.Ī new generation of listeners was introduced to Cat’s music when, ‘Father & Son’, became a huge hit for Boyzone in the 1990s. An album that contains ‘Where Do The Children Play’, ‘Hard-Headed Woman’ and ‘Wild World’ is bound to have an audience though and it reached the Top 20 here and No. The flow of new songs was accelerating fast and just five months later another album came out Tea For The Tillerman a record packed with so many great songs it beggars belief that it didn’t yield any hit singles. Not a chart album but it did contain ‘Lady D’Arbanville’ (with a young Peter Gabriel on the flute!), still one of Stevens’ best-loved songs and a No. Stevens switched record labels to Island and started recording his more thoughtful, intimate folk-based songs that were played in a loose rock setting for his debut record for Island, Mona Bone Jakon. His year-long recuperation in hospital altered his perspective on life, focused his mind on what he really wanted to do, and when he re-emerged he was a changed, and bearded, man with a bag full of new songs. At the end of 1968 it all caught up with him and he contracted tuberculosis and suffered a collapsed lung. A UK tour that could only have happened in the 1960s with the Walker Brothers, Englebert Humperdinck and Jimi Hendrix followed but Stevens was fast becoming disillusioned with the orchestrated pop that his record label wanted him to make as well as physically drained by the endless gigging and general 1960s-style indulgence. 4 single with his ‘Here Comes My Baby’ and P P Arnold (and much later Rod Stewart) had a hit with ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’. As well as his own success he was also writing material for other peoples’ hits. 7 in the LP chart, and the same month another single, ‘I’m Gonna Get Me A Gun’, came out and was a No. An album of the same name followed in March and made it to No. Pirate radio play had pushed his debut single into the Top 30 and paved the way nicely for his follow-up, ‘Matthew And Son’, released in December 1966, which was a sudden and welcome smash hit at No. Alongside David Bowie and The Moody Blues, Steven, who would from now on be known as Cat Stevens, was signed up. The result, ‘I Love My Dog’/’Portobello Road’ came to the attention of Tony Hall at Decca who was then assembling a roster of artists to launch his new Deram label. While studying at Hammersmith Art College he was auditioned by Mike Hurst, formerly of The Springfields, who was impressed enough to make a single with Steven. His father bought him a guitar when he was 15 and he started writing songs straight away. Born in London in July 1947, the son of a Greek father and Swedish mother, Steven Demetre Georgiou was brought up amidst the neon bustle of the West End and exposed to music from a variety of sources.
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