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Year of the Cat (album)

For the cat in the Vietnamese zodiac, see Cat (zodiac). For the song, see Year of the Cat (song).

Year of the Cat
Studio album by
Al Stewart
Released22 October 1976 (UK)[1]
Recorded1976
StudioAbbey Road Studios, London; Davlen Sound Studios, North Hollywood, California
GenreRock, soft rock, progressive pop
Length38:55
LabelRCA, Parlophone (2014), Janus, Arista
ProducerAlan Parsons
Al Stewart chronology
Modern Times
(1975) 		Year of the Cat
(1976) 		Time Passages
(1978)

Year of the Cat is the seventh studio album by Al Stewart, released in 1976. It was produced and engineered by Alan Parsons. Its sales helped by the hit single "Year of the Cat", co-written by Peter Wood and described by AllMusic as "one of those 'mysterious woman' songs",[2] the album was a top five hit in the United States. The other single from the album was "On the Border". Stewart wrote "Lord Grenville" about the Elizabethan sailor and explorer Sir Richard Grenville (1542–1591).[3]

Stewart had all of the music and orchestration written and completely recorded before he even had a title for any of the songs. In a Canadian radio interview he stated that he has done this for six of his albums, and he often writes four different sets of lyrics for each song.[4] The title track derives from a song Stewart wrote in 1966 called "Foot of the Stage" with prescient lyrics about Tony Hancock, one of Britain's favourite comedians who died by suicide two years later.[5] When Stewart discovered that Hancock was not well known in the United States, he went back to his original title "Year of the Cat".[6]

  1. ^ "BPI".
  2. ^ Bogdanov, Vladimir; Chris Woodstra; Stephen Thomas Erlewine (2001). All music guide: the definitive guide to popular music. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 391. ISBN 978-0-87930-627-4.
  3. ^ "Lord Grenville". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 9 March 2010.
  4. ^ "| Ciut Fm". Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011. CIUT’s Barry Livingston’s interview with legendary UK singer/songwriter Al Stewart, Thursday June 16th, 2011 at 7 a.m.
  5. ^ Dave Thompson, 1000 Songs that Rock Your World, Krause Publications, Iola, WI (2011). ISBN 978-1-4402-1422-6 p. 142.
  6. ^ Davies, John (2009). Lyrics and limericks. Dartford: Pneuma Springs Pub. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-905809-59-2. OCLC 751047053.

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