Cat Stevens-related Song Trivia #2

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Cat Stevens-related Song Trivia #2

Postby jon » Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:15 pm

What UK-only hit version (peaked at #8) of a Cat Stevens-written song recorded by another artist preceded Cat's own version being charted on the Billboard Hot 100 (U.S.) by 8 months? Release in Canada occurred 2 months after the U.K. release.

One more hint: Cat himself produced the other artist's version.
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Re: Cat Stevens-related Song Trivia #2

Postby Howaboutthat » Sat Aug 20, 2011 9:04 pm

ooooh, this is so exciting! I'm on the edge of my seat!!
Houston, We're dealing with morons!.
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Re: Cat Stevens-related Song Trivia #2

Postby jon » Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:14 am

Howaboutthat wrote:ooooh, this is so exciting! I'm on the edge of my seat!!

Tough audience.

This Cat Stevens four trivia question marathon evolved on another (Eastern) radio board. I wrote one of them. Others the rest.

Not wanting to ruin it for any who still want to guess, I won't give the answer here, but you will find the answer and see a lip-synced performance here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvq-OLUo3w

Greg Simpson, the Music Director (at the time) at CJOE London, Ontario, even chimed in to say it was a hit there.

Personally, I still prefer this version to Cat's. Partly because I don't automatically reject it as a Cover Version, since I actually heard it before Cat's version. Fortunately, I was Record Librarian at UBC Radio at the time it arrived in the mail from A&M Canada.
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Re: Cat Stevens-related Song Trivia #2

Postby PMC » Sun Aug 21, 2011 10:08 am

For the younger in the audience and don't know who Cat Stevens is...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens

For those that don't appreciate his extensive music releases

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens_discography
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Re: Cat Stevens-related Song Trivia #2

Postby Howaboutthat » Sun Aug 21, 2011 5:39 pm

He had what, 2 hits about 40 years ago?
Not exactly a musical powerhouse, unless you're a 'people's movement' hippee.
Houston, We're dealing with morons!.
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Re: Cat Stevens-related Song Trivia #2

Postby jon » Sun Aug 21, 2011 6:19 pm

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.
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Re: Cat Stevens-related Song Trivia #2

Postby PicturesForYourEars » Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:31 pm

Peace Train, Moonshadow, Another Saturday Night, Morning Has Broken, Ohhh baby baby it's a ...Wild World...Any of these the answer to the Trivia question (thought I'd throw 'em ALL out)!
...LEFT PLACES I SHOULDA STAYED,
STAYED PLACES I SHOULDA LEFT...
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Re: Cat Stevens-related Song Trivia #2

Postby jon » Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:41 pm

PicturesForYourEars wrote:Peace Train, Moonshadow, Another Saturday Night, Morning Has Broken, Ohhh baby baby it's a ...Wild World...Any of these the answer to the Trivia question (thought I'd throw 'em ALL out)!

Yes.
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