Which English singer/songwriter/musician wrote the Tremeloes hit ‘Here Comes My Baby’ at the age of eighteen?
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Singer-songwriter.txt The_Tremeloes.txt Here_Comes_My_Baby_(Cat_Stevens_song).txt Cat_Stevens.txt
Singer-songwriter The Tremeloes Here Comes My Baby (Cat Stevens song) Cat Stevens
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose, and perform their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary pop music singers who may write or co-write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the folk-acoustic tradition.  Singer-songwriters often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano; both the compositions and the arrangements are written primarily as solo vehicles, with the material angled toward topical issues—sometimes political, sometimes introspective, sensitive, romantic, and confessional.

Often, the songs written by these musicians serve not only as entertainment, but also as tools for political protest, as in the cases of the Almanac Singers, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, whose guitar was inscribed with the words, "This machine kills fascists".

Definition and usage 

"Singer-songwriter" is used to define popular music artists who write and perform their own material, which is often self-accompanied generally on acoustic guitar or piano. Such an artist performs the roles of composer, lyricist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and often self-manager.  According to AllMusic, singer-songwriters' lyrics are often personal but veiled by elaborate metaphors and vague imagery, and their creative concern is to place emphasis on the song rather than their performance of it. Most records by such artists have a similarly straightforward and spare sound that placed emphasis on the song itself. 

The term has usually, but not exclusively, been used to refer to certain performers in rock, folk, and pop music genres, although throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, artists from a number of genres applied to this category, including Henry Russell, Aristide Bruant, Hank Williams, and Buddy Holly. However, it came into popular usage from the 1960s onwards to refer to a specific type of performers who followed particular stylistic and thematic conventions, particularly lyrical introspection, confessional songwriting, mild musical arrangements, and an understated performing style.  According to writer Larry David Smith, because it merged the roles of composer, writer, and singer, the popularity of the singer-songwriter reintroduced the Medieval troubadour tradition of "songs with public personalities" after the Tin Pan Alley era in American popular music. 

History

The concept of a singer-songwriter can be traced to ancient bardic oral tradition, which has existed in various forms throughout the world. Poems would be performed as chant or song, sometimes accompanied by a harp or other similar instrument. After the invention of printing, songs would be written and performed by ballad sellers. Usually these would be versions of existing tunes and lyrics, which were constantly evolving. This developed into the singer-songwriting traditions of folk culture.

Traveling performers existed throughout Europe. Thus, the folklorist Anatole Le Braz gives a detailed account of one ballad singer, Yann Ar Minouz, who wrote and performed songs traveling through Brittany in the late nineteenth century and selling printed versions. 

In large towns it was possible to make a living performing in public venues, and with the invention of phonographic recording, early singer-songwriters like Théodore Botrel, George M. Cohan and Hank Williams became celebrities; radio further added to their public recognition and appeal.

During the period from the 1940s through the 1960s, sparked by the American folk music revival, young performers inspired by traditional folk music and groups like the Almanac Singers and the Weavers began writing and performing their own original material and creating their own musical arrangements. 

North America, United Kingdom, and Ireland

The term "singer-songwriter" in North America can be traced back to singers who developed works in the blues and folk music style. Early to mid-20th century American singer-songwriters include Lead Belly,  Jimmie Rodgers,  Blind Lemon Jefferson,  T-Bone Walker,  Blind Willie McTell,  Lightnin' Hopkins,  Son House,  and Robert Johnson.  In the 1940s and 1950s country singer-songwriters like Hank Williams became well known,   as well as Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger,  along with Ronnie Gilbert and Lee Hays and other members of the Weavers who performed their mostly topical works to an ever growing wider audience.  These proto-singer-songwriters were less concerned than today's singer-songwriters with the unadulterated originality of their music and lyrics, and would lift parts from other songs and play covers without hesitation. The tradition of writing topical songs (songs regarding specific issues of the day, such as Lead Belly's "Jim Crow Blues" or Guthrie's "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)") was established by this group of musicians. Singers like Seeger and Guthrie would attend rallies for labor unions, and so wrote many songs concerning the life of the working classes, and social protest; as did other folksingers like Josh White, Cisco Houston, Malvina Reynolds, Earl Robinson, Ewan MacColl, John Jacob Niles, and Doc Watson, while blues singers like Johnson and Hopkins wrote songs about their personal life experiences. This focus on social issues has greatly influenced the singer-songwriter genre. Additionally in the 1930s through the 1950s several jazz and blues singer-songwriters emerged like Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, and Nina Simone, as well as in the rock n' roll genre from which emerged influential singer-songwriters Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Sam Cooke, Richie Valens, and Paul Anka. In the country music field, singer-songwriters like Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Roger Miller, Billy Edd Wheeler, and others emerged from the 1940s through the 1960s, often writing compelling songs about love relationships and other subjects.

The first popular recognition of the singer-songwriter in English-speaking North America and Great Britain occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s when a series of blues, folk and country-influenced musicians rose to prominence and popularity. These singer-songwriters included Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Wilson, Tom Waits, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Tom Rush, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton,  Beau,  Eric Andersen, Arlo Guthrie, John Denver, Jackson Browne, Dave Van Ronk, Waylon Jennings, John Prine, Grace Slick, Dave Mason, Jim Croce, Fred Neil, Roger McGuinn, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Stompin' Tom Connors, Judy Collins, David Crosby, Donovan, Stephen Stills, Randy Newman, Steve Goodman, Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Brady, Jesse Winchester, Johnny Tillotson, Sylvia Tyson, Ian Tyson, Nick Drake, Tim Hardin, Laura Nyro, Bob Marley, Carly Simon, John Fogerty, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joan Armatrading, Emmylou Harris, Tim Buckley, Taj Mahal, Cat Stevens, Bruce Cockburn, Harry Chapin, James Taylor, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lou Reed, Gram Parsons, Nick Gravenites, Ricky Nelson, Mimi Fariña, Richard Fariña, Tuli KupferbergBroadside Volume III, cover Mark Spoelstra, Don Mclean, Patrick Sky, Jimmy Buffett, Mickey Newbury, Janis Ian, Dan Fogelberg, Dolly Parton, Jackie DeShannon, Lotti Golden, and Frank Zappa. Artists who had been primarily songwriters, notably Carole King, Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, and Neil Diamond, also began releasing work as performers. In contrast to the storytelling approach of most prior country and folk music, these performers typically wrote songs from a highly personal (often first-person), introspective point of view. The adjectives "confessional" and "sensitive" were often used (sometimes derisively) singer-songwriter style.

In the rock band era, members were not technically singer-songwriters as solo acts. However, many were singer-songwriters who created songs with other band members. Examples include Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, Elton John (with Bernie Taupin), Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Robbie Robertson, Ian Anderson, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, and Peter Frampton; Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Country Joe McDonald, Barry Melton. Many others like Eric Clapton found success as singer-songwriters in their later careers.

The scene that had developed out of the American folk music revival, pioneered by  Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger had grown to a major movement in the early '60s, popularized by Joan Baez and her protégée, Bob Dylan, who had started reaching a mainstream audience with his hit,  Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) bringing "protest songs" to a wider audience.    There were hints of cross-pollination, but rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with different audiences.
An early attempt at fusing elements of folk and rock was highlighted in the Animals "House of the Rising Sun" (1964), a folk song, recorded with rock and roll instrumentation.   

By the mid-1960s Bob Dylan  took the lead in merging folk and rock, and in July '65, released Like a Rolling Stone, with a revolutionary rock sound, steeped in tawdry urban imagery, followed by an electric performance later that month at the Newport Folk Festival. Dylan plugged an entire generation into the milieu of the singer-songwriter. Often writing from an urban point of view, with poetry punctuated by rock rhythms and electric power, Dylan's fusing of folk and rock freed up emerging singer-songwriters to use elements of both traditions to tell their stories. In the mid to late '60s, bands and singer-songwriters began to proliferate the underground New York art/music scene. The release of The Velvet Underground & Nico in 1967, featuring singer-songerwriter Lou Reed and German singer and collaborator Nico was described as "most prophetic rock album ever made" by Rolling Stone in 2003.  Other New York City based singer songerwriters began to emerge, using the urban landscape as their canvass for lyrics in the confessional style of poets like Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath. In July, 1969, Newsweek magazine ran a feature story, "The Girls-Letting Go," describing the groundbreaking music of Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Lotti Golden and Melanie, as a new breed of female troubadour: "What is common to them are the personalized songs they write, like voyages of self discovery, brimming with keen observation and startling in the impact of their poetry." The work of this wave of female singer-songwriters, from Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry (1969), to Lotti Golden's East Village diaries on Motor-Cycle her 1969 debut on Atlantic Records, has served as inspiration to generations of female singer-songwriters in the rock, folk, blues, jazz and R&B traditions, Saal, Hubert (July 14, 1969). " The Girl's-Letting Go". Newsweek, pp. 68,71.   into the 21st century, with poet Warsan Shire as the muse for Beyonce's 2016, Lemonade (Beyoncé album). 

By the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the original wave of singer-songwriters had largely been absorbed into a more general pop or soft rock format, but some new artists in the singer-songwriter tradition (including Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Mark Heard, Chris Isaak, Victoria Williams, John Mellencamp and Warren Zevon) continued to emerge, and in other cases rock and even punk rock artists such as Peter Case, Paul Collins and Paul Westerberg transitioned to careers as solo singer-songwriters. Kate Bush remained distinctive throughout with her idiosyncratic style.

In the late 1980s, the term was applied to a group of predominantly female U.S. artists, beginning with Suzanne Vega whose first album sold unexpectedly well, followed by the likes of Tracy Chapman, Nanci Griffith, k.d. lang, Shania Twain, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Lisa Loeb, Joan Osborne, and Tori Amos, who found success first in the United Kingdom, then in her home market. In the early 1990s, female artists also began to emerge in new styles, including Courtney Love and PJ Harvey. Later in the mid-1990s, the term was revived again with the success of Canada's Alanis Morissette and her breakthrough album Jagged Little Pill.

Also in the 1980s and 1990s, artists such as Bono, the Edge, Dave Matthews, Jeff Buckley, Duncan Sheik and Elliott Smith borrowed from the singer-songwriter tradition to create new acoustic-based rock styles. In the 2000s, a quieter style emerged, with largely impressionistic lyrics, from artists such as Norah Jones, Conor Oberst, Sufjan Stevens, David Bazan, South San Gabriel, Iron & Wine, David Gray, Ray LaMontagne, Meg Hutchinson, Darden Smith, Josh Rouse, Steve Millar, Jolie Holland, Patrick Duff, Richard Buckner, Jewel, Jack Savoretti, Richard Shindell, and John Gorka. Some started to branch out in new genres such as Kurt Cobain, Noel Gallagher, T Bone Burnett and Eddie Vedder. Others used drugs as a mind-altering way to boost creativity; for example, Emil Amos of Holy Sons took drugs daily from age sixteen on, wrote over 1,000 songs, and landed a record contract with an indie label.

Recording on the professional-grade systems became affordable for individuals in the late 1990s. This created opportunities for people to independently record and sell their music.  Such artists are known as "indies" because they release their records on independent, often self-owned record labels, or no label at all. Additionally the Internet has provided a means for indies to get their music heard by a wider audience.

Chanson, the French tradition

French "chanson" comes from an old tradition, since Middle Ages. It is driven by the rhythms of the French language and has a generally higher standard of lyrics than in the English-speaking world. It can be distinguished from the rest of French "pop" music or soft rock format that began to spread in France during the 1960s until today, under the cultural influence of Anglo-American rock music and the rock band era.

The first modern French singer-songwriter was Charles Trénet, who began his solo career in 1938. He was the first to use jazz rhythms in chanson. He would remain an isolated act until the creative blooming of a new generation during the post-World War II era (mid-1940s and 1950s), where such artists as Léo Ferré, Georges Brassens, Félix Leclerc (from Quebec), Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel (from Belgium), Henri Salvador, Charles Aznavour and Barbara appeared, with contrasted and rich imagination. Most of them are recognized as great masters by younger generations of French artists, especially Ferré (for the richness of his lyrics, his melodic genius, his critical density on social issues and his body of work's profoundness) and Gainsbourg (for the bright and tasteful adaptation of pop or rock music with French language-driven rhythms).

During the 1960s and 1970s, the most prominent singer-songwriters included Claude Nougaro, Jean Ferrat, Boby Lapointe, Michel Polnareff, Nino Ferrer, Christophe, Albert Marcœur, Bernard Lavilliers, Jacques Higelin...

Cantautori, the Italian tradition

Cantautori (Italian plural; the singular is cantautore) is the Italian expression corresponding to singer-songwriters in English. The word is a portmanteau of cantante (singer) and autore (writer).

The first internationally renowned cantautore was Domenico Modugno with his song "Volare" in 1958; other early cantautori, who begun their career in the 1950s, are Gino Paoli, Luigi Tenco, Umberto Bindi, Giorgio Gaber and Enzo Jannacci. Fabrizio De André, Lucio Battisti and Francesco Guccini began their career in the 1960s, while Edoardo Bennato, Lucio Dalla, Claudio Baglioni, Francesco De Gregori, Franco Battiato, Rino Gaetano, Ivano Fossati, Antonello Venditti, Pino Daniele, Roberto Vecchioni, Angelo Branduardi and Eugenio Finardi all appeared in the 1970s. Their songs are still popular today, often telling stories of marginalized (De André, Guccini, Dalla) and rebellious people (Finardi, De Gregori, Venditti), or having a political background (Venditti, Guccini). Branduardi was instead more influenced by classical and Baroque musical styles, while his lyrics are usually inspired by ancient fables. Battiato started as a progressive rock artist in the 1970s, shifting to an original blend of pop, electronic and rock music in the 1980s.

The Neapolitan cantautore Pino Daniele has often fused genres as diverse as R&B, pop, jazz, fusion, blues and tarantella to produce a sound uniquely his own, with lyrics variously in Italian, Neapolitan, or English. Similarly Paolo Conte was often tagged as a cantautore, but was more into the jazz tradition.

In the 1980s Vasco Rossi was renowned for his "blues" music mixed with Italian melodies. He was nicknamed the "only Italian blues-star"  (l'unica rock n'roll-star italiana). 

With a mixture between international sounds and Italian lyrics, Bugo become the "fantautore", a neologism conied for him. 

The cantautori genre of the XXI century is mainly rappresented by singer-songwriters Carmen Consoli and Vinicio Capossela.

The word has been borrowed into other languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan cantautor, French chantauteur, Maltese kantawtur, Romanian cantautor, and Slovenian kantavtor.

Latin traditions

Beginning in the 1960s and following the Italian cantautori style of the 1950s (like the one of Domenico Modugno), many Latin American countries developed singer-songwriter traditions that adopted elements from various popular styles. The first such tradition was the mid-1960s invention of nueva canción, which took hold in Andean countries like Chile, Peru, Argentina and Bolivia.

At around the same time, the Brazilian popular style bossa nova was evolving into a politically charged singer-songwriter tradition called Tropicalismo. Two performers, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso became two of the most famous people in all of Brazil through their work in Tropicalismo.

After World War II it was developed in Italy a very prolific singer-songwriter (in Italian cantautore) tradition, initially connected with the French school of the chansonniers, and lately developed very heterogeneously. Although the term cantautore normally implies consistent sociopolitical content in lyrics, noteworthy performers in a more inclusive singer-songwriter categorization are: Domenico Modugno, Luigi Tenco, Gino Paoli, Sergio Endrigo, Fabrizio De André, Francesco De Gregori, Antonello Venditti, Roberto Vecchioni, Ivano Fossati, Lucio Dalla, Francesco Guccini and Franco Battiato.

In neighbouring Malta, the main singer-songwriters are Walter Micallef, Manwel Mifsud and Vince Fabri. They all perform in Maltese.

Spain and Portugal have also had singer-songwriter traditions, which are sometimes said to have drawn on Latin elements. Spain is known for the Nova Cançó tradition — exemplified by Joan Manuel Serrat and Lluis Llach; the Portuguese folk/protest singer and songwriter José Afonso helped lead a revival of Portuguese folk culture, including a modernized, more socially aware form of fado called nova canção. Following Portugal's Carnation Revolution of 1974, nova canção became more politicized and was known as canto livre. Another important Spain singer-songwriters are Joaquín Sabina, José Luis Perales and Luis Eduardo Aute.

In the latter part of the 1960s and into the 1970s, socially and politically aware singer-songwriters like Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés emerged in Cuba, birthing a genre known as nueva trova. Trova as a genre has had broad influence across Latin America. In Mexico, for example, canción yucateca on the Yucatán Peninsula and trova serrana in the Sierra Juárez, Oaxaca are both regional adaptations of trova. Today, Guatemalan Ricardo Arjona qualifies as Latin America's most commercially successful singer-songwriter. Although sociopolitical engagement is uneven in his oeuvre, some see Arjona's more engaged works as placing him in the tradition of the Italian cantautori.

In the mid-1970s, a singer-songwriter tradition called canto popular emerged in Uruguay.

With the influence of Tropicalismo, Traditional Samba and Bossa Nova, MPB (Música popular brasileira), or Brazilian Popular Music, became highly singer-songwriter based.  For years solo artists would dominate Brazilian popular music with romantic cynicism alla Jobim or subliminal anti-government messages alla Chico Buarque.  After the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil, Brazilian music became less politically and socially conscious.  The censored Raul Seixas or the humorous spiritualist Jorge Ben were slowly obscured by funk carioca, axé music and Brazilian disco.  In recent years, however, a new stock of socially conscious Brazilian singer-songwriters is beginning to break the almost strictly dance-music momentum that has reigned since the 1980s (see the 'Brazilian folk/folk-rock sub-article in Brazilian Music).

Soviet Union and Russia

Since the 1960s, those singers who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment have been known as "bards". The first songs traditionally referred to as bard songs are thought to be written in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and the very existence of the genre is traditionally originated from the amateur activities of the Soviet intelligentsia, namely mass backpacking movement and the students' song movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Many bards performed their songs in small groups of people using a Russian guitar, rarely if ever would they be accompanied by other musicians or singers. Though, bards using piano or accordion are also known. Those who became popular held modest concerts. The first nationwide-famous bards (starting their career in the 1950s) are traditionally referred to as the First Five: Mikhail Ancharov, Alexander Gorodnitsky, Novella Matveyeva, Bulat Okudzhava, Yuri Vizbor. In the 1960s, they were joined by Vladimir Vysotsky, Victor Berkovsky, Yuliy Kim, and many others.

In the course of the 1970s, the shift to the classical 6-string guitar took place, and now, a Russian guitar is a rare bird with the bards. In the same period, the movement of KSP (Kluby Samodeyatelnoy Pesni – amateur song fan clubs) emerged, providing the bards with highly educated audience, and up to the end of the 1980s being their key promotion engine.  Bards were rarely permitted to record their music, partly given the political nature of many songs, partly due to their vague status in the strictly organised state-supported show business establishment of the USSR. As a result, bard tunes usually made their way around as folk lore, from mouth to mouth, or via the copying of amateur recordings (sometimes referred as magnitizdat) made at concerts, particularly those songs that were of political nature. Bard poetry differs from other poetry mainly in the fact that it is sung along with a simple guitar melody as opposed to being spoken. Another difference is that this form of poetry focuses less on style and more on meaning. This means that fewer stylistic devices are used, and the poetry often takes the form of narrative. What separates bard poetry from other songs is the fact that the music is far less important than the lyrics; chord progressions are often very simple and tend to repeat from one bard song to another. On the other hand, in the USSR the chief bard supporter was the state Union of Composers, and the main bard hater was the state Union of Writers. A far more obvious difference was the commerce-free nature of the genre: songs were written to be sung and not to be sold. The similar genre dominated by singers-songwriters is known as sung poetry in other Post-Soviet countries.

Bulgaria

Singer-songwriters are popular in Bulgaria under the name "bards", or "poets with guitars". Their tradition is a mixture of traditional folk motifs, city folklore from the early 20th century, and modern influences. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the Communist regime in the country started to tolerate the Bulgarian "bards", promoting the so-called "political songs", performed usually by one-man bands. A national festival tradition was established, under the title "Alen Mak" (Red Poppy), a symbol with strong Communist meaning in Bulgaria. At the same time, there were some prominent underground figures which were against the official Communist Party line, such as Angel "Jendema" Angelov, Yavor "Yavkata" Rilov, and Velizar "Valdes" Vankov. After the collapse of Communism in 1989, the singer-songwriters' tradition was re-established. Currently, the Bulgarian "bards" enjoy several festivals (local and international) per year, namely the PoKi Festival (Poets with Guitars, Poetic Strings) in the town of Harmanli, the Bardfest in Lovech, the Sofia Evenings of Singer-Songwriters, and others. Major figures in the Bulgarian tradition are Dimitar Taralezhkov, Angel "Jendema" Angelov, Yavor "Yavkata" Rilov, Velizar "Valdes" Vankov, Dimitar Dobrev, Andro Stubel, Branimir "Bunny" Stoykov, Dorothea Tabakova, Mihail Belchev, Assen Maslarski, Grisha Trifonov, Plamen Stavrev, Vladimir Levkov, Margarita Drumeva, Maria Batchvarova, Plamen Sivov, and Krasimir Parvanov.

Romania

Despite the communist isolation, the tradition of the singer-songwriter in Romania flourished beginning with the end of the 1960s and it was put in the context of folk music, with its three main styles in Romania: ethno folk, American-style folk and lyrical (cult) folk. The framework for many of these initiatives came under the form of Cenaclul Flacăra, a series of mass cultural events with an inevitable ideological touch. Still, with the merit of supporting great opening initiatives: the appropriation of Western artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others from the Woodstock generation, the public performance of gospel-like music, the opening to big international issues (pop culture, accountability of the leadership, tension surging during the Cold War-with surprisingly neutral positions etc.).
Overall, the Romanian folk, in general, could be marked as an underground cultural movement, somewhere between non-aligned and protest music.

Netherlands

Ede Staal (Warffum) (1941–1986), was a Dutch singer-songwriter from the Northern province of Groningen who sang mainly in the Groninger dialect of Dutch.

Periodicals that include coverage of singer-songwriters

*Rolling Stone, focus on music and popular culture
*Dirty Linen, focus on folk and world music.
*No Depression, focus on alternative country styles.
*Paste, eclectic music coverage.
*Pitchfork Media, focus on independent artists.
*Sing Out!, focus on folk styles.
*Broadside, focus on folk music and folk-rock. The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, Essex, and still active today.

Career

They were formed as Brian Poole and the Tremoloes (the spelling of "Tremoloes" was soon changed because of a spelling mistake in an East London newspaper) influenced by Buddy Holly and the Crickets. On New Year's Day, 1962, Decca, looking for a Beat group, auditioned two promising young bands: Brian Poole and the Tremeloes and a somewhat similar combo (also heavily influenced by Buddy Holly) from Liverpool, the Beatles.

Decca chose Brian Poole and the Tremeloes over the Beatles, reportedly based on location – the Tremeloes were from the London area, making them more accessible than the Liverpool-based Beatles.

The original quintet consisted of lead vocalist Brian Poole, lead guitarist Rick West (born Richard Westwood), rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Alan Blakley, bassist Alan Howard and drummer Dave Munden.

Brian Poole and the Tremeloes first charted in the UK in July 1963 with a version of "Twist and Shout", a song previously popularised in America by the Isley Brothers, and already released by the Beatles in the UK in March 1963 on their first British LP, Please Please Me. Brian Poole and the Tremeloes followed "Twist and Shout" with a chart topping cover of the Contours' US million-seller "Do You Love Me" in the same year. The group also had success in the UK in 1964 with covers of Roy Orbison's B-side, "Candy Man" and a previously obscure Crickets' B-side ballad, "Someone, Someone"; both entered the UK Singles Chart Top Ten, with the latter peaking at No.2.
 
With Poole leaving to attempt a solo career (which proved unsuccessful) in 1966, the Tremeloes continued as a four-piece band with a revised line-up (Howard left the band in 1966). Len "Chip" Hawkes, father of 1990s hitmaker Chesney Hawkes, replaced Howard.

After switching from Decca to CBS Records, the Tremeloes started a successful hit run from 1967 onwards with Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby"; "Hello World"; three Italian hits translated into English: "Suddenly You Love Me", which is Riccardo Del Turco's "Uno tranquillo" ("One quiet man"), "I'm Gonna Try", which is Riccardo Del Turco's 1967 hit "Luglio" ("July"), and "My Little Lady", based on Orietta Berti's "Non illuderti mai" ("Never deceive yourself"); and their Number one recording of an old Four Seasons' B-side "Silence is Golden". Both this last single and "Here Comes My Baby" also entered the Top Twenty of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on CBS' co-owned Epic Records.

All members shared vocals, though most of the songs featured either Hawkes or drummer Dave Munden as the lead singer. Guitarist Rick Westwood sang lead vocal on "Silence is Golden". Their regular hits were accompanied by frequent appearances on BBC's Top of the Pops TV programme. Their songs were popular with younger music fans and parents rather than rock music fans. Altogether, without Poole the group had nine UK Top Twenty hits.

"Me and My Life" was a hit in 1970. Their album Master which they released a few weeks later failed to sell well, and they had no British hits after "Hello Buddy" in 1971. Nevertheless, they recorded several more singles throughout the decade, including "Blue Suede Tie", "Ride On", "It's OK (Say Ole If You Love Me)", and "Do I Love You", some of which received heavy airplay, particularly on Radio Luxembourg. "I Like It That Way" even made the Dutch Top 10 after the Dutch service of Radio North Sea International promoted it as its weekly Treiterschijf. They also released another three albums of original material, Shiner (1974), Don't Let the Music Die (1975), with some copies being credited to a group Space although the Tremeloes' pictures were on the sleeve, and All for One and One for All (1992).

After the hits

Their music is still available on CD, and they quite often play concerts and are part of the pop-revival shows that constantly tour the UK. Their line-up changed several times from 1972 onwards, the first new entrants being Bob Benham and Aaron Woolley (replacing Blakley and Hawkes, both of whom would later return to the band), effectively a merger with a Tremeloes-managed group called Jumbo. Munden remained the only constant member. Hawkes pursued a solo career for a while producing two albums for RCA Records in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1979 he returned to England and rejoined the Tremeloes where he remained until 1988. Chip left the Tremeloes to focus on managing his son, Chesney, who had a number one hit record entitled "The One and Only". By 1992 Hawkes was touring once again as a solo artist. Blakley produced records for other acts, including the Rubettes, Bilbo Baggins and Mungo Jerry. In 1983 the original quartet reformed and made the lower reaches of the UK Top 100 with their cover version of the Europop hit "Words", losing out to a reactivation of the original by F. R. David.

As a soloist, Poole failed to chart with subsequent records, but pursued a successful cabaret career. His daughters, Karen and Shelly, hit the charts in 1996 as Alisha's Attic. Blakley died from cancer in June 1996, leaving Munden and West to continue in concert with newer recruits Dave Fryer (bass) and Joe Gillingham (keyboards). Jeff Brown, former bass player and lead vocals for The Sweet, replaced Fryer in 2005. Dave Fryer retired to live in Germany after leaving the band, and continues to write music and play occasionally.

Brian Poole, Chip Hawkes and the Tremeloes toured the UK as part of their 40th anniversary reunion in September 2006.

The Tremeloes are still together today: West and Munden perform their old material in concert throughout Europe with musicians from other 1960s and 1970s bands. Hawkes is also still an active performer and leads his own band Class of '64. Brian Poole still tours with his band the Electrix. Rick Westwood retired from the Tremeloes at the end of 2012.

The Class of '64

In April 2004, at the request of the Animals, who were about to do their 40th anniversary tour, Hawkes was asked to form a band to tour with the Animals. This he did, bringing together a supergroup including Mick Avory (ex-the Kinks), Eric Haydock (ex-the Hollies), who teamed up to perform as the Class of '64, also featuring guitarists, Telecaster Ted Tomlin and Graham Pollock. The band toured around the world and recorded an album of past band hits and a new single called "She's Not My Child".

In 2007 Haydock, Tomlin, Pollock and Avory left to form a new band called Legends of the Sixties before changing their name to the Hitmen.

Members

;Current members
* Dave Munden – drums, lead vocals (1958–present)
* Joe Gillingham – keyboards, vocals (1996–present)
* Jeff Brown – bass, vocals (2005–present)
* Syd Twynham – guitar, vocals (2014–present) 

;Former members
* Brian Poole – lead vocals (1958–1968)
* Rick Westwood – guitar, vocals (1961–2012)
* Alan Blakley – rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals (1958–1972, 1979–1996; died 1996)
* Alan Howard – bass, vocals (1958–1966)
* Len "Chip" Hawkes – bass, vocals (1966–1972, 1979–1988)
* Bob Benham – guitar, vocals (1972–1979)
* Aaron Wooley – rhythm guitar, vocals (1972–1979)
* Mick Clarke – bass, vocals (1966–1967, 1992–1996)
* Dave Fryer – bass, vocals (1996–2005)
* Eddie Jones – guitar, vocals (2013–2014)

Discography

LPs

;as  Brian Poole & The Tremeloes 
* Big Hits of '62 (Decca - 1963)
* Twist and Shout (Decca - 1963)
* Brian Poole Is Here! (Audio Fidelity - 1965)
* It's About Time (Decca - 1965)

;as The Tremeloes 
* Here Comes My Baby (Epic, CBS - 1967)
* Even the Bad Times Are Good / Silence Is Golden (Epic - 1967)
* Alan, Dave, Rick and Chip (CBS - 1967)
* World Explosion! (Epic - 1968)	
* Suddenly You Love Me (Epic - 1968)
* Master (CBS - 1970)
* Shiner (DJM Records - 1974)
* Don't Let the Music Die (DJM Records - 1975)

Singles

Personal lives

In November 2015 Westwood and Hawkes were both charged with sexual assault relating to a case from 1968.   They were acquitted in July 2016. "Here Comes My Baby" is a pop song written by Cat Stevens and recorded in 1967.  It originally appeared on his album Matthew and Son before it was popularized by the Tremeloes as a hit single only months later.

Cover versions

The song, minus the final verse, was also covered by The Tremeloes, whose version was a No. 4 hit in the UK Singles Chart  and a No. 13 hit in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1967.  It was also covered by The Mavericks, whose version peaked at number 42 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in 1999.  
Turin Brakes released their cover version as a b-side to their single, "Something In My Eye". Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou, ), commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, humanitarian, and education philanthropist.  His 1967 debut album reached the top 10 in the UK, and the album's title song "Matthew and Son" charted at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. His albums Tea for the Tillerman (1970) and Teaser and the Firecat (1971) were both certified triple platinum in the US by the RIAA.  His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and Islamic music.   

His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, and fifteen weeks at number one in the Australian ARIA Charts.   He earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in 2005 and 2006 for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", and the song has been a hit for four different artists. His other hit songs include "Father and Son", "Wild World", "Peace Train", "Moonshadow", and "Morning Has Broken". In 2007 he received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection. 

In December 1977, Stevens converted to Islam,  and he adopted the name Yusuf Islam the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity  and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He was embroiled in a long-running controversy regarding comments he made in 1989 about the death fatwa on author Salman Rushdie.  He has received two honorary doctorates and awards for promoting peace from two organisations founded by Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 2006, he returned to pop music – releasing his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, titled An Other Cup.  With that release and subsequent ones, he dropped the surname "Islam" from the album cover art – using the stage name "Yusuf" as a mononym. In 2009, he released the album Roadsinger, and in 2014, he released the album Tell 'Em I'm Gone, and began his first US tour since 1978. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. 

Biography

Early life (1948–65)

Steven Georgiou, born on 21 July 1948 in the Marylebone area of London, was the youngest child of a Greek Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (1900–1978),  and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (1915–1989).  He had an older sister, Anita (b. 1937), and a brother, David Gordon.  The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a restaurant that his parents operated on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue which was a short walk from Piccadilly Circus in the Soho theatre district of London. All family members worked in the restaurant. His parents divorced when he was about eight years old, but they continued to maintain the family restaurant and live above it.

Although his father was Greek Orthodox and his mother a Swedish Baptist, Georgiou was sent to St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School, Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on Drury Lane.  Georgiou developed an interest in piano at a fairly young age, eventually using the family baby grand piano to work out the chords, since no one else there played well enough to teach him. Inspired by the popularity of the Beatles, at 15 he extended his interest to the guitar, persuaded his father to pay £8 for his first instrument, and began playing it and writing songs.  He would escape at times from his family responsibilities to the rooftop above their home, and listen to the tunes of the musicals drifting from just around the corner from Denmark Street, which was then the centre of the British music industry. Stevens emphasised that the advent of West Side Story in particular affected him, giving him a "different view of life".  With interests in both art and music, he and his mother moved to Gävle, Sweden, where he attended primary school (Solängsskolan) and started developing his drawing skills after being influenced by his uncle Hugo Wickman, a painter. They subsequently returned to England. 

He attended other local West End schools, where he says he was constantly in trouble, and did poorly in everything but art. He was called "the artist boy" and mentions that "I was beat up, but I was noticed".  He went on to take a one-year course of study at Hammersmith School of Art,  as he considered a career as a cartoonist. Though he enjoyed art (his later record albums would feature his original artwork on his album covers), he wanted to establish a musical career and began to perform originally under the stage name "Steve Adams" in 1965 while at Hammersmith.  At that point, his goal was to become a songwriter. As well as the Beatles, other musicians who influenced him were the Kinks,  Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, blues artists Lead Belly and Muddy Waters,  Biff Rose (particularly Rose's first album), Leo Kottke, and Paul Simon.  He also wanted to emulate composers who wrote musicals, like Ira Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. In 1965 he signed a publishing deal with Ardmore & Beechwood and recorded several demos, including "The First Cut Is the Deepest". 

Musical career (1966–70)

Early musical career

Georgiou began to perform his songs in London coffee houses and pubs. At first he tried forming a band, but soon realised he preferred performing solo. Thinking that his given name might not be memorable to prospective fans, he chose the stage name Cat Stevens, in part because a girlfriend said he had eyes like a cat, but mainly because he said, "I couldn't imagine anyone going to the record store and asking for 'that Steven Demetre Georgiou album'. And in England, and I was sure in America, they loved animals."  In 1966, at age 18, he impressed manager/producer Mike Hurst, formerly of British vocal group the Springfields, with his songs and Hurst arranged for him to record a demo and then helped him get a record deal. The first singles were hits. "I Love My Dog", charting on the UK Singles Chart at number 28, and "Matthew and Son", the title song from his debut album, went to number 2 in the UK.  "I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun" was his second UK top 10, reaching number 6, and the album Matthew and Son reached number 7 on the UK Albums Chart.  The original version of the Tremeloes' hit "Here Comes My Baby" was written and recorded by Stevens.

Over the next two years, Stevens recorded and toured with an eclectic group of artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Engelbert Humperdinck. Stevens was considered a fresh-faced teen star, placing several single releases in the British pop music charts.  Some of that success was attributed to the pirate radio station Wonderful Radio London, which gained him fans by playing his records. In August 1967, he went on the air with other recording artists who had benefited from the station to mourn its closure.  

His December 1967 album New Masters failed to chart in the United Kingdom. The album is now most notable for his song "The First Cut Is the Deepest", a song he sold for £30 to P. P. Arnold that was to become a massive hit for her,  and an international hit for Keith Hampshire, Rod Stewart, James Morrison, and Sheryl Crow. Forty years after he recorded the first demo of the song, it earned him two back-to-back ASCAP "Songwriter of the Year" awards, in 2005 and 2006.  

Tuberculosis

Stevens contracted tuberculosis in 1969  and was close to death at the time of his admittance to the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, West Sussex. He spent months recuperating in the hospital and a year of convalescence. During this time Stevens began to question aspects of his life and spirituality. He later said, "to go from the show business environment and find you are in hospital, getting injections day in and day out, and people around you are dying, it certainly changes your perspective. I got down to thinking about myself. It seemed almost as if I had my eyes shut."

He took up meditation, yoga, and metaphysics;  read about other religions; and became a vegetarian. As a result of his serious illness and long convalescence, and as a part of his spiritual awakening and questioning, he wrote as many as forty songs, many of which would appear on his albums in years to come.

Changes in musical sound after illness

The lack of success of Stevens' second album mirrored a difference of personal tastes in musical direction, and a growing resentment at producer Mike Hurst's attempts to re-create another album like that of his debut, with heavy-handed orchestration, and over-production, rather than the folk rock sound Stevens was attempting to produce.  He admits having purposefully sabotaged his own contract with Hurst, making outlandishly expensive orchestral demands and threatening legal action, which resulted in his goal: release from his contract with Deram Records, a sub-label of Decca Records. Upon regaining his health at home after his release from the hospital, Stevens recorded some of his newly written songs on his tape recorder, and played his changing sound for a few new record executives. After hiring agent Barry Krost, who had arranged for an audition with Chris Blackwell of Island Records, Blackwell offered him a "chance to record [his songs] whenever and with whomever he liked, and more importantly to Cat, however he liked". With Krost's recommendation, Stevens signed with Paul Samwell-Smith, previously the bassist of the Yardbirds, to be his new producer.

Musical career (1970–78)

Height of popularity

 Around this time, Stevens had a catalogue of new songs that reflected his new perspective on what he wanted to bring to the world with his music. His previous work had sold at home in the UK, but Stevens was still relatively unknown by the public across the Atlantic. To rectify this, after signing with Island Records in 1970, an American distribution deal was arranged with A&M Records' Jerry Moss in North America. Stevens began work on Mona Bone Jakon, a folk rock based album.

Producer Paul Samwell-Smith paired Stevens with guitarist Alun Davies, who was at that time working as a session musician. Davies was the more experienced veteran of two albums which already had begun to explore the emerging genres of skiffle and folk rock music. Davies was also thought a perfect fit with Stevens in particular for his "fingerwork" on the guitar, harmonising and his backing vocals. They originally met just to record Mona Bone Jakon,  but developed a fast friendship. Davies, like Stevens, was a perfectionist,  appearing at all sound checks to be sure that all the equipment and sound were prepared for each concert.  He collaborated with Stevens on all but two of the succeeding albums Stevens released, and performed and recorded with him until Stevens' retirement. Their friendship continued, however, and when Stevens re-emerged as Yusuf Islam after 27 years, Davies appeared again performing at his side, and has remained there.

The first single released from Mona Bone Jakon was "Lady D'Arbanville", which Stevens wrote about his young American girlfriend Patti D'Arbanville. The record, with a madrigal sound unlike most music played on pop radio, with sounds of djembes and bass in addition to Stevens' and Davies' guitars, reached number 8 in the UK. It was the first of his hits to get real airplay in the US. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold record in 1971.  Other songs written for D'Arbanville included "Maybe You're Right", and "Just Another Night".  In addition, the song "Pop Star", about his experience as a teen star, and "Katmandu", featuring Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel playing flute, were featured. Mona Bone Jakon was an early example of the solo singer-songwriter album format that was becoming popular for other artists as well. Rolling Stone magazine compared its popularity with that of Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection, saying it was played "across the board, across radio formats". 

Mona Bone Jakon was the precursor for Stevens' international breakthrough album, Tea for the Tillerman, which became a Top 10 Billboard hit. Within six months of its release, it had sold over 500,000 copies, attaining gold record status in the United Kingdom and the United States. The combination of Stevens' new folk rock style and accessible lyrics which spoke of everyday situations and problems, mixed with the beginning of spiritual questions about life, would remain in his music from then on. The album features the Top 20 single "Wild World"; a parting song after D'Arbanville moved on. "Wild World" has been credited as the song that gave Tea for the Tillerman 'enough kick' to get it played on FM radio; and the head of Island Records, Chris Blackwell, was quoted as calling it "the best album we've ever released". Other album tracks include "Hard-Headed Woman", and "Father and Son", a song sung both in baritone and tenor, about the struggle between fathers and their sons who are faced with their own personal choices in life. In 2001, this album was certified by the RIAA as a Multi-Platinum record, having sold 3 million copies in the United States at that time.  It is ranked at No. 206 in the 2003 list of "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". 

After the end of his relationship with D'Arbanville, Stevens noted the effect it had on writing his music, saying, "Everything I wrote while I was away was in a transitional period and reflects that. Like Patti. A year ago we split; I had been with her for two years. What I write about Patti and my family ... when I sing the songs now, I learn strange things. I learn the meanings of my songs late ..."

Having established a signature sound, Stevens enjoyed a string of successes over the following years. 1971's Teaser and the Firecat album reached number two and achieved gold record status within three weeks of its release in the United States. It yielded several hits, including "Peace Train", "Morning Has Broken", and "Moonshadow". This album was also certified by the RIAA as a Multi-Platinum record in 2001, with over three million sold in the United States through that time. When interviewed on a Boston radio station, Stevens said about Teaser and the Firecat:

I get the tune and then I just keep on singing the tune until the words come out from the tune. It's kind of a hypnotic state that you reach after a while when you keep on playing it where words just evolve from it. So you take those words and just let them go whichever way they want ...'Moonshadow'? Funny, that was in Spain, I went there alone, completely alone, to get away from a few things. And I was dancin' on the rocks there ... right on the rocks where the waves were, like, blowin' and splashin'. Really, it was so fantastic. And the moon was bright, ya know, and I started dancin' and singin' and I sang that song and it stayed. It's just the kind of moment that you want to find when you're writin' songs. 

For seven months from 1971 to 1972 Stevens was romantically linked to popular singer Carly Simon while both were produced by Samwell-Smith. During that time both wrote songs for and about one another. Simon wrote and recorded at least two Top 50 songs, "Legend in Your Own Time" and "Anticipation" about Stevens.  He reciprocated in his song to her, after their romance, titled, "Sweet Scarlet".   

His next album, Catch Bull at Four, released in 1972, was his most rapidly successful album in the United States, reaching gold record status in 15 days, and holding the number-one position on the Billboard charts for three weeks. This album continued the introspective and spiritual lyrics that he was known for, combined with a rougher-edged voice and a less acoustic sound than his previous records, using synthesisers and other instruments. Although the sales of the album indicated Stevens' popularity, the album did not produce any real hits, with the exception of the single "Sitting", which charted at number 16. Catch Bull at Four was Platinum certified in 2001.

Movie and television soundtracks

In July 1970, Stevens recorded one of his songs, "But I Might Die Tonight", for the Jerzy Skolimowski film, Deep End.  In 1971, Stevens provided nine songs to the soundtrack of the black comedy Harold and Maude which became a popular cult film celebrating the free spirit, and brought Stevens' music to a wider audience, continuing to do so long after he stopped recording in the late 1970s. Among the songs were "Where Do the Children Play?", "Trouble", and "I Think I See the Light". Two of the songs, "Don't Be Shy" and "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out", were not released on any album until their inclusion in 1984 on a second "greatest hits" collection, Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2.

After his religious conversion in the late 1970s, Stevens stopped granting permission for his songs to be used in films. However, almost twenty years later, in 1997, the movie Rushmore received his permission to use his songs "Here Comes My Baby" and "The Wind", showing a new willingness on his part to release his music from his Western "pop star" days. This was followed in 2000 by the inclusion of "Peace Train" in the movie Remember the Titans,  in 2000 by the use in Almost Famous of the song "The Wind",  and in 2006 the inclusion of "Peace Train" on the soundtrack to We Are Marshall.  Since then, permission has been given for Cat Stevens songs to be used in the soundtracks for several movies and tv shows, including the song "Tea for The Tillerman" used as the theme tune for the Ricky Gervais BBC-HBO sitcom Extras. A Christmas-season television commercial for gift-giving by the diamond industry aired in 2006 with Cat Power's cover of "How Can I Tell You".

In 2011, "Don't Be Shy" was used in the pilot episode of the ABC television series Once Upon A Time. In 2014, "Cat and the Dog Trap" (from the Tell 'Em I'm Gone album released as Yusuf) was used on an episode of the CBS television series Elementary.

Later recordings

 

Subsequent releases in the 1970s also did well on the charts and in ongoing sales, although they did not touch the success he had from 1970 to 1973. In 1973, Stevens moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a tax exile from the United Kingdom, however, he later donated the money to UNESCO.  During that time he created the album Foreigner, which was a departure from the music that had brought him to the height of his fame. It differed in several respects: entirely written by Stevens, he dropped his band and produced the record without the assistance of Samwell-Smith, who had played a large role in catapulting him to fame, and instead of guitar, he played keyboard instruments throughout the album. It was intended to show a funk/soul element rising in popularity that Stevens had come to appreciate. One side of Foreigner was continuous, much different from the radio-friendly pop tunes fans had come to expect. In November 1973 he performed side two of the album at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood, with a pre-arranged uninterrupted quadraphonic simulcast on the ABC network. The show was titled the "Moon and Star" concert. This performance did include his band, but they were all but overshadowed by an orchestra. The album produced a couple of singles including "The Hurt", but did not reach the heights he had once enjoyed.
The follow-up to Foreigner was Buddha and the Chocolate Box, largely a return to the instrumentation and styles employed in Teaser and the Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman. Featuring the return of Alun Davies and best known for "Oh Very Young", Buddha and the Chocolate Box reached platinum status in 2001.  Stevens' next album was the concept album Numbers, a less successful departure for him.

In April 1977, his Izitso album updated his pop rock and folk rock style with the extensive use of synthesisers,  giving it a more synthpop style.  "Was Dog a Doughnut" in particular was an early techno-pop fusion track and a precursor to the 1980s electro music genre,  making early use of a music sequencer.  Izitso included his last chart hit, "(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard", an early synthpop song that used a polyphonic synthesiser; it was a duet with fellow UK singer Elkie Brooks. Linda Lewis appears in the song's video, with Cat Stevens singing to her, as they portray former schoolmates, singing to each other on a schoolyard merry-go-round.  This is one of the few music videos that Stevens made, other than simple videos of concert performances.

His final original album under the name Cat Stevens was Back to Earth, released in late 1978, which was also the first album produced by Samwell-Smith since his peak in single album sales in the early 1970s. Several compilation albums were released before and after he stopped recording. After Stevens left Decca Records they bundled his first two albums together as a set, hoping to ride the commercial tide of his early success; later his newer labels did the same, and he himself released compilations.  The most successful of the compilation albums was the 1975 Greatest Hits which has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. In May 2003 he received his first Platinum Europe Award  from the IFPI for Remember Cat Stevens, The Ultimate Collection, indicating over one million European sales.

Religious conversion

While on holiday in Marrakesh, Morocco, Stevens was intrigued by the sound of the Aḏhān, the Islamic ritual call to prayer, which was explained to him as "music for God". Stevens said, "I thought, music for God? I'd never heard that before – I'd heard of music for money, music for fame, music for personal power, but music for God!" 

In 1976 Stevens nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, California, United States, and said he shouted: "Oh, God! If you save me I will work for you."  He related that right afterward a wave appeared and carried him back to shore. This brush with death intensified his long-held quest for spiritual truth. He had looked into "Buddhism, Zen, I Ching, numerology, tarot cards, and astrology". Stevens' brother David Gordon brought him a copy of the Qur'an as a birthday gift from a trip to Jerusalem. Stevens took to it right away, and began his transition to Islam.

During the time he was studying the Qur'an, Stevens began to identify more and more with the story of Joseph, a man bought and sold in the market place, which is how he said he had increasingly felt within the music business.  Regarding his conversion, in his 2006 interview with Alan Yentob,  he stated, "to some people, it may have seemed like an enormous jump, but for me, it was a gradual move to this." And, in a Rolling Stone magazine interview, he reaffirmed this, saying, "I had found the spiritual home I'd been seeking for most of my life. And if you listen to my music and lyrics, like "Peace Train" and "On The Road To Find Out", it clearly shows my yearning for direction and the spiritual path I was travelling." 

Stevens formally converted to the Islamic religion on 23 December 1977, taking the name Yusuf Islam in 1978. Yusuf is the Arabic rendition of the name Joseph; he stated that he "always loved the name Joseph" and was particularly drawn to the story of Joseph in the Qur'an. Although he discontinued his pop career, he was persuaded to perform one last time before what would become his twenty-five-year musical hiatus. Appearing with his hair freshly shorn and an untrimmed beard, he headlined a charity concert on 22 November 1979 in Wembley Stadium to benefit UNICEF's International Year of the Child.  The concert closed with his performance along with David Essex, Alun Davies, and Yusuf's brother, David Gordon, who wrote the finale song  "Child for a Day".

After a brief engagement to Louise Wightman, Yusuf married Fauzia Mubarak Ali on 7 September 1979, at Regent's Park Mosque in London.  They have one son and four daughters and seven grandchildren; a second son died in infancy.  They currently live in London, spending part of each year in Dubai.

Life as Yusuf Islam (1978–present)

Muslim faith and musical career

Following his conversion, Yusuf abandoned his music career for nearly three decades. In 2007, he said that when he became a Muslim in 1977, the Imam at his mosque told him that it was fine to continue as a musician, as long as the songs were morally acceptable, but that others were saying "it was all prohibited", and he decided to avoid the question by ceasing to perform.  He has said there was "a combination of reasons, really", and that the continuing demands of the music business had been "becoming a chore, and not an inspiration anymore". In a 2004 interview on Larry King Live, he said "A lot of people would have loved me to keep singing. You come to a point where you have sung, more or less ... your whole repertoire and you want to get down to the job of living. You know, up until that point, I hadn't had a life. I'd been searching, been on the road."

Estimating in January 2007 that he was continuing to earn approximately US$1.5 million a year from his Cat Stevens music,  he said he would use his accumulated wealth and ongoing earnings from his music career on philanthropic and educational causes in the Muslim community of London and elsewhere. In 1983, he founded the Islamia Primary School in Brondesbury Park, later moved to Salusbury Road,  in the north London area of Queen's Park and, soon after, founded several Muslim secondary schools; in 1992, he set up The Association of Muslim Schools (AMS-UK), a charity that brought together all the Muslim schools in the UK. He is also the founder and chairman of the Small Kindness charity, which initially assisted famine victims in Africa and now supports thousands of orphans and families in the Balkans, Indonesia, and Iraq.  He served as chairman of the charity Muslim Aid from 1985 to 1993. 

Salman Rushdie controversy

Yusuf attracted controversy in 1989, during an address to students at London's Kingston University, where he was asked about the fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie, author of the novel The Satanic Verses. Yusuf made a series of comments that appeared to show his support for the fatwa. He released a statement the following day denying that he supported vigilantism, and claiming that he had merely recounted the legal Islamic punishment for blasphemy. In a 2006 BBC interview, he displayed a newspaper clipping from that period, with quotes from his statement. Subsequent comments made by him in 1989 on a British television programme were also seen as being in support of the fatwa. In a statement in the FAQ section of one of his websites, Yusuf asserted that while he regretted the comments, he was joking and that the show was improperly edited.  In the years since these comments, he has repeatedly denied ever calling for the death of Rushdie or supporting the fatwa.

11 September 2001 attacks

Immediately following the September 11 attacks on the United States, he said:

I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorist attacks committed against innocent people of the United States yesterday. While it is still not clear who carried out the attack, it must be stated that no right-thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an action. The Qur'an equates the murder of one innocent person with the murder of the whole of humanity. We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose sympathies go out to the victims of this sorrowful moment.  

He appeared on videotape on a VH1 pre-show for the October 2001 Concert for New York City, condemning the attacks and singing his song "Peace Train" for the first time in public in more than 20 years, as an a cappella version. He also donated a portion of his box-set royalties to the fund for victims' families, and the rest to orphans in underdeveloped countries.  During the same year, he dedicated time and effort in joining the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism, an organisation that worked towards battling misconceptions and acts against others because of their religious beliefs or their racial identity (or both), after many Muslims reported a backlash against them due in part to the grief caused by the events in the United States on 9/11.

Denial of entry into the United States

On 21 September 2004, Yusuf was on a United Airlines flight from London to Washington, travelling to a meeting with US entertainer Dolly Parton, who had recorded "Peace Train" several years earlier and was planning to include another Cat Stevens song on an upcoming album. While the plane was in flight, his name was flagged as being on the No Fly List. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers alerted the United States Transportation Security Administration, which then diverted his flight to Bangor, Maine, where he was detained by officers from the Department of Homeland Security. 

The following day, he was denied entry and flown back to the United Kingdom. A spokesman for Homeland Security claimed there were "concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related activities".  The Israeli government had deported Yusuf in 2000 over allegations that he provided funding to the Palestinian organisation Hamas,  but he denied doing so knowingly.  Yusuf, who repeatedly has condemned terrorism and Islamic extremism, stated "I have never knowingly supported or given money to Hamas".  "At the time I was reported to have done it, I didn't know such a group existed. Some people give a political interpretation to charity. We were horrified at how people were suffering in the Holy Land."

However, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) added him to a "watch list". The removal provoked an international controversy and led the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to complain personally to the United States Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations.  Powell responded by stating that the watchlist was under review, adding, "I think we have that obligation to review these matters to see if we are right". 

Yusuf believed his inclusion on a "watch list" may have simply been an error: a mistaken identification of him for a man with the same name, but different spelling. On 1 October 2004 he requested the removal of his name, "I remain bewildered by the decision of the US authorities to refuse me entry to the United States".  According to his statement, the man on the list was named "Youssef Islam", indicating that Yusuf was not the suspected terrorism supporter. Romanisation of Arabic names can easily result in different spellings: the transliteration of the Islamic name for Joseph lists a dozen spellings.

Two years later, in December 2006, Yusuf was admitted without incident into the United States for several radio concert performances and interviews to promote his new record.  He said of the incident at the time, "No reason was ever given, but being asked to repeat the spelling of my name again and again, made me think it was a fairly simple mistake of identity. Rumours which circulated after made me imagine otherwise." 

Yusuf wrote a song about his 2004 exclusion from the US, titled "Boots and Sand", recorded in 2008 and featuring Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, and Terry Sylvester. 

Libel cases

Lawsuit over News UK newspaper reports that he had supported terrorism

In October 2004 the News UK newspapers The Sun and The Sunday Times voiced their support for Yusuf's exclusion from the United States and claimed that he had supported terrorism. He sued for libel and received an out-of-court financial settlement from the newspapers, which both published apology statements saying that he had never supported terrorism and mentioning that he had recently been given a Man of Peace award from the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. However The Sunday Times managing editor Richard Caseby said that while there was an "agreed settlement", they "always denied liability" and "disagreed with Cat Stevens' lawyers interpretation", but took a "pragmatic view" of the lawsuit. 

Yusuf responded that he was "delighted by the settlement [which] helps vindicate my character and good name. ... It seems to be the easiest thing in the world these days to make scurrilous accusations against Muslims, and in my case it directly impacts on my relief work and damages my reputation as an artist. The harm done is often difficult to repair", and added that he intended to donate the financial award given to him by the court to help orphans of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. He wrote about the experience in a newspaper article titled "A Cat in a Wild World". 

Lawsuit about allegation that he would not talk to unveiled women

On 18 July 2008, Yusuf received substantial undisclosed damages from the World Entertainment News Network following their publication of a story that claimed the singer refused to speak to unveiled women.  The allegations first surfaced in the German newspaper BZ after Yusuf's trip to Berlin in March 2007 to collect the Echo music award for "life achievements as musician and ambassador between cultures".  Once again he was awarded damages after the World Entertainment News Network allowed an article to be published on Contactmusic.com alleging that he would not speak to unveiled women with the exception of his wife. His solicitor said "he was made out to be 'so sexist and bigoted that he refused at an awards ceremony to speak to or even acknowledge any women who were not wearing a veil.  The news agency apologised and issued a statement saying that Yusuf has never had any problem in working with women and has never required a third party as an intermediary to function at work. The money from this lawsuit went to his Small Kindness Charity.

On his website, he discussed the false allegation, saying, "The accusation that I do not speak or interact with ladies who are not veiled is an absurdity.... It's true that I have asked my manager to respectfully request lady presenters refrain from embracing me when giving awards or during public appearances, but that has nothing to do with my feelings or respect for them. Islam simply requires me to honour the dignity of ladies or young girls who are not closely related to me, and avoid physical intimacy, however innocent it may be." He added, "My four daughters all follow the basic wearing of clothes which modestly cover their God-given beauty. They're extremely well educated; they do not cover their faces and interact perfectly well with friends and society." 

Return to music

1990s–2006: as Yusuf Islam

Yusuf gradually resumed his musical career in the 1990s. His initial recordings had not included any musical instruments other than percussion, and featured lyrics about Islamic themes, some in spoken word or hamd form. He invested in building his own recording studio which he named Mountain of Light Studios in the late 1990s, and he was featured as a guest singer on "God Is the Light", a song on an album of nasheeds by the group Raihan. In addition, he invited and collaborated with other Muslim singers, including Canadian artist Dawud Wharnsby. After Yusuf's friend, Irfan Ljubijankić, the Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was killed by a Serbian rocket attack, Yusuf appeared at a 1997 benefit concert in Sarajevo and recorded a benefit album named after a song written by Ljubijankić, I Have No Cannons That Roar. 

Realising there were few educational resources designed to teach children about the Islamic religion, Yusuf wrote and produced a children's album, A Is for Allah, in 2000  with the assistance of South African singer-songwriter Zain Bhikha. The title song was one Yusuf had written years before to introduce his first child to both the religion and the Arabic alphabet. He also established his own record label, "Jamal Records", and Mountain of Light Productions, and he donates a percentage of his projects' proceeds to his Small Kindness charity, whose name is taken from the Qur'an. 

On the occasion of the 2000 re-release of his Cat Stevens albums, Yusuf explained that he had stopped performing in English due to his misunderstanding of the Islamic faith. "This issue of music in Islam is not as cut-and-dried as I was led to believe ... I relied on heresy ,  that was perhaps my mistake." 

Yusuf has reflected that his decision to leave the Western pop music business was perhaps too quick with too little communication for his fans. For most, it was a surprise, and even his long-time guitarist, Alun Davies, said in later interviews that he hadn't believed that his friend would actually go through with it, after his many forays into other religions throughout their relationship. Yusuf himself has said the "cut" between his former life and his life as a Muslim might have been too quick, too severe, and that more people might have been better informed about Islam, and given an opportunity to better understand it, and himself, if he had simply removed those items that were considered harām, in his performances, allowing him to express himself musically and educate listeners through his music without violating any religious constraints. 

In 2003, after repeated encouragement from within the Muslim world,  Yusuf once again recorded "Peace Train" for a compilation CD, which also included performances by David Bowie and Paul McCartney. He performed "Wild World" in Nelson Mandela's 46664 concert with his former session player Peter Gabriel, the first time he had publicly performed in English in 25 years. In December 2004, he and Ronan Keating released a new version of "Father and Son": the song entered the charts at number two, behind Band Aid 20's  "Do They Know It's Christmas?" They also produced a video of the pair walking between photographs of fathers and sons, while singing the song. The proceeds of "Father and Son" were donated to the Band Aid charity. Keating's former group, Boyzone, had a hit with the song a decade earlier. As he had been persuaded before, Yusuf contributed to the song, because the proceeds were marked for charity.

On 21 April 2005 Yusuf gave a short talk before a scheduled musical performance in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the anniversary of the prophet Muhammad's birthday. He said: There is a great deal of ignorance in the world about Islam today, and we hope to communicate with the help of something more refined than lectures and talks. Our recordings are particularly appealing to the young, having used songs as well as Qur'an verses with pleasing sound effects ... 

Yusuf observed that there are no real guidelines about instruments and no references about the business of music in the Qur'an, and that Muslim travellers first brought the guitar to Moorish Spain. He noted that Muhammad was fond of celebrations, as in the case of the birth of a child, or a traveller arriving after a long journey. Thus, Yusuf concluded that healthy entertainment was acceptable within limitations, and that he now felt that it was no sin to perform with the guitar.  Music, he now felt, is uplifting to the soul; something sorely needed in troubled times.  At that point, he was joined by several young male singers who sang backing vocals and played a drum, with Yusuf as lead singer and guitarist. They performed two songs, both half in Arabic, and half in English; "Tala'a Al-Badru Alayna", an old song in Arabic which Islam recorded with a folk sound to it, and another song, "The Wind East and West", which was newly written by Yusuf and featured a distinct R&B sound.

With this performance, Yusuf began slowly to integrate instruments into both older material from his Cat Stevens era (some with slight lyrical changes) and new songs, both those known to the Muslim communities around the world and some that have the same Western flair from before with a focus on new topics and another generation of listeners.

In a 2005 press release, he explained his revived recording career:

In early 2005, Yusuf released a new song, titled "Indian Ocean", about the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami disaster. The song featured Indian composer/producer A. R. Rahman, a-ha keyboard player Magne Furuholmen and Travis drummer Neil Primrose. Proceeds of the single went to help orphans in Banda Aceh, one of the areas worst affected by the tsunami, through Yusuf's Small Kindness charity. At first, the single was released only through several online music stores but later featured on the compilation album Cat Stevens: Gold. "I had to learn my faith and look after my family, and I had to make priorities. But now I've done it all and there's a little space for me to fill in the universe of music again." 

On 28 May 2005, Yusuf delivered a keynote speech and performed at the Adopt-A-Minefield Gala in Düsseldorf. The Adopt-A-Minefield charity, under the patronage of Paul McCartney, works internationally to raise awareness and funds to clear landmines and rehabilitate landmine survivors. Yusuf attended as part of an honorary committee which also included George Martin, Richard Branson, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Klaus Voormann, Christopher Lee and others. 

In mid-2005, Yusuf played guitar for the Dolly Parton album, Those Were the Days, on her version of his "Where Do the Children Play?" (Parton had also covered "Peace Train" a few years earlier.)

Yusuf has credited his then 21-year-old son Muhammad Islam, also a musician and artist, for his return to secular music, when the son brought a guitar back into the house, which Yusuf began playing. Muhammad's professional name is Yoriyos  and his debut album was released in February 2007.  Yoriyos created the art on Yusuf's album An Other Cup, something that Cat Stevens did for his own albums in the 1970s.

In May 2006, in anticipation of his forthcoming new pop album, the BBC1 programme Imagine aired a 49-minute documentary with Alan Yentob called Yusuf: The Artist formerly Known as Cat Stevens. This documentary film features rare audio and video clips from the late 1960s and 1970s, as well as an extensive interview with Yusuf, his brother David Gordon, several record executives, Bob Geldof, Dolly Parton, and others outlining his career as Cat Stevens, his conversion and emergence as Yusuf Islam, and his return to music in 2006. There are clips of him singing in the studio when he was recording An Other Cup as well as a few 2006 excerpts of him on guitar singing a few verses of Cat Stevens songs including "The Wind" and "On the Road to Find Out".

In December 2006, Yusuf was one of the artists who performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, in honour of the prize winners, Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank. He performed the songs "Midday (Avoid City After Dark)", "Peace Train", and "Heaven/Where True Love Goes". He also gave a concert in New York City that month as a Jazz at Lincoln Center event, recorded and broadcast by KCRW-FM radio, along with an interview by Nic Harcourt. Accompanying him, as in the Cat Stevens days, was Alun Davies, on guitar and vocals.

2006–present: as Yusuf

2006–08: An Other Cup and appearances

In March 2006, Yusuf finished recording his first all-new pop album since 1978.  The album, An Other Cup, was released internationally in November 2006 on his own label, Ya Records (distributed by Polydor Records in the UK, and internationally by Atlantic Records)—the 40th anniversary of his first album, Matthew and Son. An accompanying single, called "Heaven/Where True Love Goes", was also released. The album was produced with Rick Nowels, who has worked with Dido and Rod Stewart. The performer is noted as "Yusuf", with a cover label identifying him as "the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens". The art on the album is credited to Yoriyos. Yusuf wrote all of the songs except "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood",  and recorded it in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Yusuf actively promoted this album, appearing on radio, television and in print interviews. In November 2006, he told the BBC, "It's me, so it's going to sound like that of course ... This is the real thing ... When my son brought the guitar back into the house, you know, that was the turning point. It opened a flood of, of new ideas and music which I think a lot of people would connect with."  Originally, he began to return only to his acoustic guitar as he had in the past, but his son encouraged him to "experiment", which resulted in the purchase of a Stevie Ray Vaughan Fender Stratocaster  in 2007.

Also in November 2006, Billboard magazine was curious as to why the artist is credited as just his first name, "Yusuf" rather than "Yusuf Islam". His response was "Because 'Islam' doesn't have to be sloganised. The second name is like the official tag, but you call a friend by their first name. It's more intimate, and to me that's the message of this record." As for why the album sleeve says "the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens", he responded, "That's the tag with which most people are familiar; for recognition purposes I'm not averse to that. For a lot of people, it reminds them of something they want to hold on to. That name is part of my history and a lot of the things I dreamt about as Cat Stevens have come true as Yusuf Islam."

Yusuf was asked by the Swiss periodical Das Magazin why the title of the album was An Other Cup, rather than "Another Cup". The answer was that his breakthrough album, Tea for the Tillerman in 1970, was decorated with Yusuf's painting of a peasant sitting down to a cup of steaming drink on the land. He commented that the two worlds "then, and now, are very different". His new album shows a steaming cup alone on this cover. His answer was that this was actually an other cup; something different; a bridge between the East and West, which he explained was his own perceived role. He added that, through him, "Westerners might get a glimpse of the East, and Easterners, some understanding of the West. The cup, too, is important; it's a meeting place, a thing meant to be shared."

On CBS Sunday Morning in December 2006, he said, "You know, the cup is there to be filled ... with whatever you want to fill it with. For those people looking for Cat Stevens, they'll probably find him in this record. If you want to find [Yusuf] Islam, go a bit deeper, you'll find him." He has since described the album as being "over-produced" and refers to An Other Cup as being a necessary hurdle he had to overcome before he could release his new album, Roadsinger.

In April 2007, BBC1 broadcast a concert given at the Porchester Hall by Islam as part of BBC Sessions, his first live performance in London in 28 years (the previous one being the UNICEF "Year of the Child" concert in 1979). He played several new songs along with some old ones like "Father and Son", "The Wind", "Where Do the Children Play?", "Don't Be Shy", "Wild World", and "Peace Train".

In July 2007, he performed at a concert in Bochum, Germany, in benefit of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Peace Centre in South Africa and the Milagro Foundation of Deborah and Carlos Santana. The audience included Nobel Laureates Mikhail Gorbachev, Desmond Tutu and other prominent global figures. He later appeared as the final act in the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg performing some classic Cat Stevens songs and more recent compositions reflecting his concern for peace and child welfare. His set included Stevie Wonder's "Saturn", "Peace Train", "Where Do the Children Play?", "Ruins", and "Wild World". He performed at the Peace One Day concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 21 September 2007. 
In 2008 Yusuf contributed the song "Edge of Existence" to the charity album Songs for Survival, in support of the indigenous rights organisation Survival International.

2008–14: Roadsinger, "My People" and tours

In January 2009, Yusuf released a single in aid of children in Gaza, a rendition of the George Harrison song, "The Day the World Gets Round", along with the German bassist Klaus Voorman, who had formerly collaborated with The Beatles. To promote the new single, Voormann redesigned his famous Beatles Revolver album cover, drawing a picture of a young Cat Stevens along with himself and Harrison.  Proceeds from the single were donated to charities and organisations including UNESCO, UNRWA, and the nonprofit group Save the Children, with the funds earmarked for Gaza children.  Israeli Consul David Saranga criticised Yusuf for not dedicating the song to all of the children who are victims of the conflict, including Israeli children.[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,483284,00.html Israeli Official Blasts Cat Stevens' Song for Gaza Children], Joshua Rhett Miller, Fox News Channel, 26 January 2009.

On 5 May 2009, Yusuf released Roadsinger, a new pop album recorded in 2008. The lead track, "Thinking 'Bout You", received its debut radio play on a BBC programme on 23 March 2009.  Unlike An Other Cup, he promoted the new album with appearances on American television as well as in the UK. He appeared on The Chris Isaak Hour on the A&E network in April 2009, performing live versions of his new songs, "World O'Darkness", "Boots and Sand", and "Roadsinger". On 13 May he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles, and on 14 May, on The Colbert Report in New York City, performing the title song from the Roadsinger album. On 15 May, he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, performing "Boots and Sand" and "Father and Son". On 24 May he appeared on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, where he was interviewed and performed the title track of Roadsinger. On 15 August, he was one of many guests at Fairport Convention's annual Fairport's Cropredy Convention where he performed five songs accompanied by Alun Davies, with Fairport Convention as his backing band.

A world tour was announced on his web site to promote the new album. He was scheduled to perform at an invitation-only concert at New York City's Highline Ballroom on 3 May 2009  and to go on to Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto, as well as some to-be-announced European venues. However, the New York appearance was postponed due to issues regarding his work visa. He appeared in May 2009 at Island Records' 50th Anniversary concert in London. In November and December 2009, Yusuf undertook his "Guess I'll Take My Time Tour" which also showcased his musical play Moonshadow. The tour took him to Dublin, where he had a mixed reception; subsequently he was well received in Birmingham and Liverpool, culminating in an emotional performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In June 2010 he toured Australia for the first time in 36 years,  and New Zealand for the first time ever. 

On 30 October 2010 Yusuf appeared at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's spoof Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, DC, singing alongside Ozzy Osbourne. Yusuf performed "Peace Train" and Ozzy performed "Crazy Train" at the same time, followed by The O'Jays performance of "Love Train". 

On 2 March 2011, Yusuf released his latest song, "My People", as a free download available through his official website, as well as numerous other online outlets.  Said to have been recorded at a studio located within a hundred yards of the site of the Berlin Wall, the song is inspired by a series of popular uprisings in the Arab world, known as the Arab Spring. 

On 1 April 2011, he launched a new tour website (yusufinconcert.com) to commemorate his first European tour in over 36 years scheduled from 7 May to 2 June 2011. The ten-date tour visited Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and cities such as Stockholm, Hamburg, Oberhausen, Berlin, Munich, Rotterdam, Paris, Mannheim, Vienna and Brussels. 

In May 2012, Moonshadow, a new musical featuring music from throughout his career opened at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. The show received mixed reviews and closed four weeks early.  

In October 2013, Yusuf was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work under the Cat Stevens name (this was his second nomination – the first being an unsuccessful nomination in 2005).     He was selected and was inducted by Art Garfunkel in April 2014 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, where he performed "Father and Son", "Wild World", and "Peace Train".    A record of his travel from Dubai to New York is captured in an episode of the NatGeoTV show Ultimate Airport Dubai S2, episode 6, first aired in China on 17 January 2015. In this episode he talks about his difficulty in entering the US. 

2014–present: Tell 'Em I'm Gone, "He Was Alone" and tours

On 15 September 2014, Yusuf announced the forthcoming release on 27 October 2014 of his new studio album, Tell 'Em I'm Gone, and two short tours: a November 2014 (9-date) Europe tour and a December 2014 (6-date) North America tour, the latter being his first one since 1976.   On 4 December 2014, he played to his first public US audience since the 1970s at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia. 

Yusuf performed two shows in early 2015: on 27 February at the Viña del Mar Festival, Quinta Vergara, Viña del Mar, Chile and on 22 April at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay, area of Cardiff, Wales, UK.

On 1 June 2016, Yusuf shared a new song called "He Was Alone" and its corresponding video. Part of his newly launched fundraising campaign for child refugees, #YouAreNotAlone, the song was inspired by a trip to southern Turkey's camps for Syrian refugees.   He performed  the song live for the first time in a special charity concert, his first show in more than a year, on 14 June 2016 at the Westminster Central Hall in London. 

On 26 July 2016, Yusuf announced he would be part of the Global Citizen Festival to be held on 24 September 2016 in New York City's Central Park. 

Awards

Humanitarian awards

* 2003: World Award (also known as the "World Social Award"), an award organised by Mikhail Gorbachev, for "humanitarian relief work helping children and victims of war". 
* 2004: Man of Peace Award of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates (an award organisation founded by Mikhail Gorbachev) for his "dedication to promote peace, the reconciliation of people and to condemn terrorism", the ceremony was held in Rome, Italy and attended by five Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
* 2009: Honorary Award of the [http://www.nachhaltigkeitspreis.de German Sustainability Award]
* 2015: Global Islamic Economy Awards for contributions toward peace through the Arts  
* 2015:  Steiger Award honoured in the category "International" for his commitment to charitable projects  

Honorary degrees

* 2005: Honorary doctorate by the University of Gloucestershire for services to education and humanitarian relief. 
* 2007: Honorary doctorate (LLD) by the University of Exeter, in recognition of "his humanitarian work and improving understanding between Islamic and Western cultures".  

Music awards and recognitions

* 2015: Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 
* 2014: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
* 2008: Nomination (unsuccessful) for Songwriters Hall of Fame 
* 2007: The Mediterranean Art and Creativity Award by the Fondazione Mediterraneo. 
* 2007: Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).
* 2007: ECHO "Special Award for Life Achievements as a Musician and Ambassador Between Cultures"
* 2006: ASCAP Songwriter of the Year for "The First Cut Is the Deepest" (second time) 
* 2006: Ranked 49th in Pastes "100 Best Living Songwriters" 
* 2005: ASCAP Songwriter of the Year and Song of the Year for "The First Cut Is the Deepest"

Selected discography 

;As Cat Stevens
* 1967: Matthew and Son
* 1967: New Masters
* 1970: Mona Bone Jakon
* 1970: Tea for the Tillerman
* 1971: Teaser and the Firecat
* 1972: Catch Bull at Four 
* 1973: Foreigner 
* 1974: Buddha and the Chocolate Box 
* 1975: Numbers
* 1977: Izitso 
* 1978: Back to Earth

;As Yusuf
* 2006: An Other Cup
* 2009: Roadsinger
* 2014: Tell 'Em I'm Gone
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