Sing Out: New Cat Stevens Compilation to Accompany Memoir
The man they now call Yusuf/Cat Stevens has announced a new career-spanning compilation to tie with his forthcoming memoir this fall.
On the Road to Findout: Greatest Hits will be available as a 1CD or 2LP highlights set, as well as a deeper-dive 2CD or 4LP collection on September 5. It’s the first time an album will feature both the cream of his work as one of the top British folk songwriters in the ’60s and ’70s, as well as music from his return to popular song styles after decades out of the business following a major spiritual journey. Both sets will include new liner notes from the artist as well as lyrics. A month later, on October 7, an autobiography of the same name will arrive from Genesis Publications.
The man born Steven Demetre Georgiou in London had an impressive career as one of the more thoughtful and contemplative songwriters of his age, earning critical and commercial acclaim for modern-day standards like “The First Cut is the Deepest,” “Lady D’Arbanville,” “Father and Son,” “Wild World,” “Moonshadow,” “Peace Train” and “Morning Has Broken.” Six of his albums between 1970 and 1977 were Top 10 hits in America, and audiences traced his evolution from folk music on classics like 1970’s Tea for the Tillerman and 1971’s Teaser and the Firecat into usage of then-new synthesizers on Izitso (1977) and Back to Earth (1978).
After Back to Earth, Cat Stevens did something no one expected: he dropped out of the pop life entirely. While struggling in the waters off the coast of Malibu in 1976, Stevens says he called to God to save him and was pushed back to shore by a wave. This triggered an intense period of spiritual discovery culminating with his conversion to the Islamic faith in 1977, taking on the name Yusuf Islam. For more than two decades, he focused on raising a family and donating to charitable causes with his amassed royalties, interpreting a pop music career at the time as incongruent with his beliefs.
Gradually – particularly after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City and a prolonged culture of fear cultivating around the Middle East – Yusuf re-emerged to perform even-more resonant versions of “Peace Train,” “Wild World” and others, as well as offering his own experiences on life as a practicing Muslim that counteracted terrorist narratives. In 2006, he released An Other Cup, which would become his first of five albums (and counting) of new recordings. Plain-spoken and gentle as ever – perhaps more so, with age – he’s seen covers of his material become hits (Maxi Priest’s reggae version of “Wild World,” Sheryl Crow’s “The First Cut is the Deepest,” and Irish pop star Ronan Keating’s U.K. No. 2 version of “Father and Son,” on which Yusuf duetted), and has accepted both humanitarian and musical honors, including awards from bodies of Nobel laureates and inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in 2014) and Songwriters Hall of Fame (in 2019).
On the Road to Findout – both as a book and compilation – promises to be an illuminating look back at one of Western music’s most intriguing figures. The album is due September 5 and can be pre-ordered below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)
On the Road to Findout: Greatest Hits (Cat-O-Log/A&M/UMe, 2025)
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD 1/LP 1-2 and 3 (Track 1) (* also on 1CD/2LP)
- I Love My Dog
- Matthew & Son *
- Here Comes My Baby *
- The First Cut is the Deepest *
- Lady D’Arbanville *
- Trouble
- Where Do the Children Play? *
- Wild World *
- Father and Son
- Tea for the Tillerman
- Don’t Be Shy
- If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out *
- The Wind *
- How Can I Tell You
- Morning Has Broken *
- Moonshadow *
- Peace Train *
- I Want to Live in a Wigwam
- Sitting *
- Can’t Keep It In *
- Foreigner Suite (Excerpt)
- The Hurt *
- Ready
- Oh Very Young *
- Another Saturday Night
CD 2/rest of LP 3-4
- Majik of Majiks
- Banapple Gas *
- (Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard *
- (I Never Wanted) To Be a Star
- Just Another Night *
- Last Love Song
- Butterfly
- Heaven/Where True Love Goes *
- Maybe There’s a World
- Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
- Thinking ‘Bout You *
- Roadsinger
- Gold Digger *
- Dying to Live
- Blackness of the Night *
- Grandsons
- Miles from Nowhere
- On the Road to Find Out
- Father and Son *
- Here Comes the Sun (Acoustic)
- All Nights, All Days
- Take the World Apart *
Disc 1, Tracks 1-3 from Matthew and Son (Deram, 1967)
Disc 1, Track 4 from New Masters (Deram, 1967)
Disc 1, Tracks 5-6 from Mona Bone Jakon (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1970)
Disc 1, Tracks 7-10 from Tea for the Tillerman (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1970)
Disc 1, Tracks 11-12 recorded for Harold and Maude (1971) and first released on Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1984)
Disc 1, Tracks 13-17 from Teaser and the Firecat (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1971)
Disc 1, Track 18 from “Morning Has Broken” single – Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1971
Disc 1, Tracks 19-20 from Catch Bull At Four (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1972)
Disc 1, Tracks 21-22 from Foreigner (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1973)
Disc 1, Tracks 23-24 from Buddha and the Chocolate Box (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1974)
Disc 1, Track 25 from Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.) single, 1974
Disc 2, Tracks 1-2 from Numbers (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1975)
Disc 2, Tracks 3-4 from Izitso (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1977)
Disc 2, Tracks 5-6 from Back to Earth (Island (U.K.)/A&M (U.S.), 1978)
Disc 2, Track 7 from Back to Earth (Deluxe Edition) (Cat-O-Log/BMG, 2019)
Disc 2, Tracks 8-10 from An Other Cup (Ya/Polydor (U.K.)/Atlantic (U.S.), 2006)
Disc 2, Tracks 11-12 from Roadsinger (Ya/Polydor (U.K.)/UMe (U.S.), 2009)
Disc 2, Tracks 13-14 from Tell ‘Em I’m Gone (Cat-O-Log/Legacy, 2014)
Disc 2, Tracks 15-16 from The Laughing Apple (Cat-O-Log/Decca (U.K.)/Verve (U.S.), 2017)
Disc 2, Tracks 17-19 from Tea for the Tillerman 2 (Cat-O-Log/Island/UMC, 2020)
Disc 2, Track 20 from Cat-O-Log/BMG digital single, 2023
Disc 2, Tracks 21-22 from King of a Land (Cat-O-Log/Dark Horse/BMG, 2023)
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9 thoughts on “Sing Out: New Cat Stevens Compilation to Accompany Memoir”
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I’m looking for the part where the “gentle as ever” man who can “perform even-more resonant versions of ‘Peace Train’ ” has publicly, prominently recanted his past comments about the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, especially since the actual assassination attempt on Rushdie’s life that cost him his right eye a few years ago. Has that happened yet? I desperately want to be corrected about that so I can hear Stevens’/Islam’s greatest hits again with a clear conscience. Not until then.
agreed
He has actually made several statements about the incident. Go to his website and he addresses the issue. After the stabbing where Rushdie lost his eye, Stevens reached condemning the attack and wishing him a full recovery.
Nonetheless the damage has been done and for many the music and the man are not inseparable.
Thank you for pointing that out. I’ll check it out. Yusuf Islam didn’t exactly “counteract terrorist narratives” by agreeing publicly with the fatwa early on and then repeatedly affirming it over a thirty-year period, but if he has recanted those statements of support now, (is it too much to hope that he regrets saying them) then that is good, if tragically late.
He regrets nothing , no matter what he says.
So you’ve made up your own mind no matter what he says. One can presume you’ve hunted down every other pop musician who’s made a problematic statement and purged them from your collection?
Sorry, but this is islamophobic bullshit. Consume his music or don’t.
To me only years 1967-78 matters from him. I already own all the records from those years. This is not for me. The memoir i may bought.
Back at the time of Cat’s “Teaser and the Firecat” album,I (then 16) saw him perform at Miami Beach Auditorium(Later “The Theater of The Performing Arts”, and now “The Fillmore South”). and between songs,a young lady approached the stage wanting to hand something to Cat,so Cat went to the edge of the stage,and reached down to get te object from the lady. Returning to where he was seated,playing duets with second guitarist Alun Davies,Stevens looked at the object,holding it up for the audience to see. Stevens then announced,”It’s a religious medallion.Thanks, but no thanks.I’m not into religion.” The audienced roared with approval.Obviously, the young lady thought that Stevens needed salvation. Apparently,he did. Five years later,he became Yusuf Islam.I’m still not sure if Yusuf/Cat totally disavows terrorism, but he has apparently found contentment in his life. He has written some great songs,though.
Overall, this is an excellent compilation, with a few minor quibbles. It does not include “Hard Headed Woman”, which was included on “Greatest Hits”, but was never released as a single. Also excluded is “Two Fine People”, also from “Greatest Hits”. That one reached the top 40 in the U.S.