Cat Stevens… with apologies to Harry Chapin

I always tell students to question everything and everyONE… and that includes me. I hate to be wrong (does anyone enjoy being wrong?) but sometimes I am. I know… le’ gasp!

So… this happened…

I played the Ugly Kid Joe version of Cat’s in the Cradle in my Tue/Thu 2367 class yesterday and then spoke about the Cat Stevens version (um… does not exist, apparently). When I misspoke, a student (H.M.) called me out on it in class (politely, mind you) and told me that it was Harry Chapin’s song. He was kind enough to follow up with an email per my request, so I wouldn’t forget to do some searching. I appreciated his information.

There are many reasons why this mistake was made by me, though that matters little. I have an old cassette tape recording that was attributed to Cat Stevens (apparently incorrectly) and when I searched online, I found ample places where his face overlaid that music in videos. Now I know that it is a common mistake. A mistake… though… and I wanted to correct it HERE rather than just in that one HDFS 2367 course where H.M. sits. I may have shared this info before in error and want to be sure to get that out there. Sure, it’s a little mistake, but it was bad information and I don’t appreciate receiving bad info and don’t like disseminating it either.

Cat Stevens IS the artist that sang “Father and Son” so that part was true, and he DID change his name to Yusuf Islam… ding… another truth. But the “cat’s in the cradle” bit… clearly wroooooong.

So there you have it.

Thanks H.M.

And now, for a musical interlude…

Harry Chapin’s Cat’s in the Cradle