Customer Reviews

The Very Best of Cat Stevens

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This is a very comprehensive review of songs from throughout Stevens' career. Unlike his two "Greatest Hits" albums, this compilation does contain some of his mid-60s British hits before proceeding to the great songs from the early 70s that made him a world-wide superstar. It is also a treasure to have a "new" track in the never before released "I've Got A Thing About Seeing My Grandson..." It is notably not on the same scale as the other songs, however. But this does not diminish its worth. As far as his most recognized work, it's very well covered. Many folk oriented singer-songwriters from the 60s and 70s can sound dated, but songs like "Moonshadow" and "Peace Train" still sound crisp and relevant. This is mostly due to the strength and beauty of Cat's voice and the emotion he is able to convey. Finally, this compilation is smart enough to include at least one track from each of his lesser known but more spiritual albums of the mid to late seventies. This adds a completeness and also gives the listener a biographical sense of just where Cat Stevens was as a person when he chose to stop being "Cat Stevens". I definitely recommend this as a first step to rediscovering an artist who still ranks at the top of singer-songwriters to emerge in the last half of the last century.

It is impossible to compile a single-disc greatest-hits compilation for Cat Stevens that will come close to satisfying all of his admirers. The Very Best of Cat Stevens is the fifth major attempt to do so and, like its predecessors, it is challenged by its subject's success.

Stevens was practically a permanent resident of the British and American pop charts from his debut as a teen star in 1966 until the late '70s when his conversion to Islam prompted him to abandon his music career. Add to the hit singles the many enormously popular album tracks and it becomes extremely difficult to identify the "very best" 20 songs.

The first Greatest Hits was released in 1975, too early to include material from the last three albums. It also ignored the early pop albums, excluding catchy hits like "Matthew & Son" and "Lady D'Arbanville." The second volume was dominated by weaker album tracks from the late albums. The Stevens edition of the A&M Classics series suffered from some peculiar song choices ("New York Times"?) and it, too, ignored the early albums. Remember Cat Stevens - The Ultimate Collection is the longest of the five (24 tracks) and may be the most comprehensive.

But The Very Best of Cat Stevens, released just a year later, has several advantages that make it more appealing. To begin with, it is the only compilation to sequence chronologically songs from every one of Stevens' albums, including the experimental Foreigner. It also contains the delightful folk creed "The Wind," which was a glaring omission from the so-called Ultimate Collection.

Most significantly, it contains the previously unreleased "I've Got a Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old." Stevens recorded a demo of the song during the Mona Bone Jakon sessions in 1970, but it never saw the light of day until it was remixed for this collection.

Perhaps this was because it was considered too eccentric for public consumption, straddling the line between the hook-rich pop of Stevens' '60s records and the groundbreaking folk-rock of his '70s efforts. If so, the public was vastly underestimated. The song is a buried treasure that fits in perfectly in the company of Stevens' best work.

By default this is the best single-disc anthology available from the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens. This release virtually duplicates the mid-Seventies Greatest Hits package--all but "Two Fine People" and "Ready"--and expands the original twelve tracks to twenty. Also, with A&M deleting many of the titles in its Classics series (including Cat Stevens' Classics Vol. 24), this new anthology is the pick of the litter.

The remastering is excellent and the song selection is solid. All of his biggest Seventies hits are here: "Wild World," "Peace Train," "Morning Has Broken," "Oh Very Young" and the Sam Cooke cover "Another Saturday Night." [However, you don't get ALL of his Top 40 hits. In addition to the two aforementioned hits dropped from the original Greatest Hits package, this also leaves off "The Hurt" (No. 31) from 1973. Other songs missing in action are his minor hits from the late Seventies--"Banapple Gas," "Bad Breaks" and "Was Dog a Doughnut."]

Also worth noting is Cat Stevens first charted in his native England four years before his intitial success in the U.S. with "Wild World" in 1971. In fact, Stevens charted in the U.K. six times between 1966 and 1970. Only "Matthew & Son," "The First Cut Is the Deepest" (a hit for Rod Stewart in 1977)and "Lady D'Arbanville" are from this period.

During the singer-songwriter era of the Seventies, Stevens held his own with the likes of James Taylor, Jim Croce, Carole King and Harry Nilsson, and created a substantial body of work. His introspective lyrics, catchy melodies and maple syrup voice were a winning combination. The twenty songs on this disc represent all facets of his career and if you're going to limit your purchases to one Cat Stevens CD, this is the one two own. RECOMMENDED

Cat Stevens came out of the U.K. in the early 70's with the very rare talent of writing great and meaningful lyrics with beautiful music. This collection starts off with some of his early work that earned him fans in Britain and includes "The First Cut is the Deepest" an eventual smash hit bt Rod Stewart. It's interesting to follow the evolution of his art as he gains international star status. His U.S. debut album, Tea for the Tillerman, begins to show his ability to put his heart into his lyrics. Songs such as "Where do the Children Play" (questioning what price we pay for progress) and Father and Son (a song about the different paths fathers and sons travel) demonstrate a deep passion for life. As his music progresses through his other albums he continues to explore the world and relationships while searching for his own path. "Morning has Broken" is a hymm he found in a religous section of a bookstore that he arrainged and recorded. Moonshadow is nice and catchy, if not a little morbid. Also his last album really demostrates his final conversion and the sense of awareness and acceptance he found within. If you only buy 1 Cat Stevens CD, this is it!

If you've never given Cat Stevens a listen this is the place to begin. He may be categorized as a folk singer or a lite rock performer but he is also much more than that. I first heard Cat Stevens songs when I saw the movie Harold and Maude. His music was such an integral part of the film and stuck so resolutely in my head that I immediately went out and bought one of his albums, and proceeded to buy more as he released them. (All on vinyl, of course. This was the early Seventies). Cat Stevens songs can range from heartbreakingly sad to fierce and proud. The lyrics, the melodies, the unusual and passionate voice all come together to create a unique artist. I'm not one for nostalgia, but amongst the oldies that I still play (Beatles, Eric Clapton, Simon and Garfunkel) Cat Stevens is still on my stereo.

This is a first class compiliation of Cat Stevens' greatest hits. If you are a baby boomer, then you will greatly appreciate this album which primarily features music from the late sixties and the seventies. Some of the music will put you on the nostalgia train and some of it is timeless, but all of it is excellent.

Cat Stevens is undoubtedly a prolific songwriter and when he sings his music, you get gold. This anthology of his music is about as good as it gets. From "Lady D'arbanville" to "Wild World", "Moonshadow", "Peace Train", "Oh Very Young", and, of course, "Morning Has Broken", the listener can't go wrong. Cat Stevens' talent is such that not only can he write great music, but he can sing, as well. His voice is at times folksy, at other times rich and vibrant, with a catch in it that can break your heart.

When Cat Stevens converted to Islam and left the entertainment world, Islam's gain was truly the music world's loss. In any case, this CD is well worth buying.

If there really is no such thing as perfect, then "The Very Best Of Cat Stevens" is as close as you can get to a perfect compilation.

Cat Stevens was one of the most successful artists of the early 1970s' singer/songwriter movement. His mellow, acoustic based hit singles still remain classics today. And they're all here on this neatly packaged, digitally remastered, 20 song collection. Those hits include "The First Cut Is The Deepest", "Wild World", "Hard Headed Woman", "Morning Has Broken", "Moonshadow", "Peace Train", "Peace Train", "Sitting", "Oh Very Young", "Another Saturday Night" and "(Remember The Days Of The) Old School Yard". Also, many underrated gems including the previously unreleased "I've Got A Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old". And the sound quality is excellent.

The oackaging, as I said, is beautiful. The liner notes make for a great read. An essential album for your record collection.

Whoops! Yeah, I know. How can anyone still favor the music from someone whose own recent public pronouncements belie the dreamy humanism and tolerance of the lyrics in these songs? Still, after thirty years of listening to the songs included on this album, while it still puzzles me that anyone capable of creating such beautiful lyrics, enchanting melodies, and memorable arrangements could now be so rigid and intolerant of others, I cannot help but love the work itself. I have to admit that the music remains, folks, a monument to late sixties-early seventies consciousness, a pillar to the edifice of the whole notion that we could change the world and make it a better, more tolerant, and more humane place to live in. To me, this compilation of his greatest hits celebrates those ideas as much as the artist himself.

All the music here is wonderful, and I can listen to the album without missing a lovely beat, from "The Wind" to "The First Cut Is The Deepest" to the magical and breath-taking "Peace Train". My own personal favorites are "Oh Very Young" with its simply stated intimacies and crisp musicianship, the soft yet soaring "Morning Has Broken", a song I have never heard a harsh word against, and of course, "Moonshadow", another in a series of similar unforgettable Cat Steven's catchy musical confections. I also love "Hardheaded Woman", "Wild World', and the very early and incredibly somber rendition of "Lady D'Arbanville". There is simply no getting around how uniquely talented he was. This terrific greatest hits album is a reminder that sometimes art rises above the level of its all too human creator. Enjoy!

"Tea for the Tillerman," "Teaser and the Firecat" and "Catch Bull at Four" are 1, 2 and 3 on my all-time Top 10 albums list. With nary a clunker on all three, I recommend this anthology because 10 of its songs are from those albums. But that means, if this is your introduction to him, you have much brilliance waiting for you in the original discs should you like what you hear here.

Cat Stevens was once Steve Giorgiou, and Cat paid homage to his Greek parentage beautifully with "Rubylove" (Teaser and the Firecat) and "O Caritas" (Catch Bull at Four). The first is a lively, joyous folk tune-love song, the second an austere, haunting prayer that is as different from the first as it is from "Morning Has Broken." Again, there is so much substance to each Cat Stevens release that no anthology can truly capture the "best." The man had range, all right, and a seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of curiosity and spirituality that informed all of his music. That he was on a quest for personal meaning was obvious throughout his work, and when at last he found in Islam what he had been searching for, we lost a great artist and Islam gained a very deep and profound soul.

I am among the reviewers who saw the 2-hour VH-1 bio on Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam this past fall, wherein he attempted to set the record straight about the whole, horrible Rushdie disaster. He was a student of the Koran, quoting scripture to a reporter as one might quote The Ten Commandments, and believing (naively, perhaps) that the press would deal with him honestly and objectively. The next day the headlines screamed "Cat Says Kill Rushdie!" It sounds to me like a tragic misunderstanding, or a cynical set-up, or both.

I have seen remarks here that suggest he will never be forgiven by some of the folks who turned on him then. All these years and a few new revelations later, I see plenty of room for second thoughts on the subject. But whether you wish to judge his art on a political basis is your choice. If you do, allow me to share my favorite recent political quote: "If you have ever said or done anything you wish you could amend, get on the ferry. The rest of you can walk across the lake."

So, our government feels compelled to divert an airliner to keep gentle Cat out of the United States because he changed his last name to Islam?

The only record of his I own is "Tea for the Tillerman" on vinyl, but today I'm buying Cat's greatest hits on CD to show we're not all idiots. Besides, these are great songs. I was not a major fan in the early 1970s, but I now see a big part of that as a snob reaction (he was a little too "pop" if you know what I mean -- appearing on TV and AM radio and cafeteria jukeboxes). These songs are still stuck in my head after thirty years, and they'll still be stuck in other people's heads long after Ridge & Ashcroft are historical footnotes and Bush & Cheney & Rumsfeld have served their full sentences for war crimes.

Peace