Howaboutthat wrote:He had what, 2 hits about 40 years ago?
Not exactly a musical powerhouse, unless you're a 'people's movement' hippee.
Looking directly at the Billboard Hot 100 chart action, Cat Steven's importance does not look too huge. Given the number of times I heard "Moon Shadow" on radio stations in the Pacific Northwest in 1971, I was surprised that it only peaked at #30 on Billboard. He actually had 5 Top 15 hits between 1971 and 1974.
But albums tell a whole different story. He had 8 Top 15 albums from 1971 to 1977, 4 of those peaked at #3 or better, and 6 stayed on the charts for about a year each. More recently, a Greatest Hits album peaked at #58 and stayed on the charts for 38 weeks in 2000. And he has had two albums of original work that did even better (than the 2000 Greatest Hits) in 2006 and 2009, under his new name "YUSUF".
Interesting to compare Billboard with the amount of airplay on local radio at the time of release.