Search - Cat Stevens :: The Very Best of Cat Stevens

This One's a Winner

Steve Vrana | Aurora, NE | 04/26/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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"

The 5th Time's The Charm

Christopher Lauer | 11/14/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Return of the Cat

V. K. Hill | Lubbock, Texas USA | 07/20/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."