Year Of The Cat (6:41)

Year Of The Cat, of the album Year Of The Cat, opens with a quietly-played piano piece - and builds into a stunning and beautiful song, with lyrics that are hard to fathom, yet somehow gel together perfectly. Obviously they mean something to the author, Al Stewart, though much has been said on what exactly. Halfway through is a superb acoustic guitar solo which leads into a electric lead guitar piece, which itself is followed by a saxophone. That really says it all about the production. This wonderful and relaxing song is, in some opinions, the best ever written! That’s a tall order, but the song really is that good. Lay in the dark and put the headphones on!

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London in January 1976 by engineer Alan Parsons, It remains one of Stewart’s most popular songs and receives regular airplay on both classic rock and folk rock stations. The song was co-written by Peter White who performed with Stewart for almost 20 years. This song was also Stewart’s first Top 10 US single, peaking at #8 on the US singles chart.

Parsons had Phil Kenzie add the saxophone part of the song - and by doing so transformed the original folk concept into the jazz-influenced ballad that put Al Stewart onto the charts.

The track was used in the film version of Running with Scissors in 2006.