The piano arrangement on Stevens' recording was arranged and performed by Rick Wakeman, a classically trained keyboardist who joined the English progressive rock band Yes soon afterwards. When shaping "Morning Has Broken" for recording, Stevens started with the hymn, which took around 45 seconds to sing in its basic form. Producer Paul Samwell-Smith told him he could never put something like that on an album, and that it had to be at least three minutes, though an acoustic demo of an early Stevens version lasts almost three minutes. Prior to the actual recording Stevens heard Wakeman play something in the recording booth. It was a rough sketch of what would later become "Catherine Howard". Stevens told Wakeman that he liked it and wanted something similar as the opening section, the closing section and, if possible, a middle section as well. Wakeman told Stevens he could not as it was his piece destined for a solo album, but Stevens persuaded him to adapt his composition. In 2000, Wakeman released an instrumental version of "Morning Has Broken" on an album of the same title. That same year he gave an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live in which he said he had agreed to perform on the Cat Stevens track for £10 and was "shattered" that he was omitted from the credits, adding that he never received the money either. On his return to performance as Yusuf Islam, Stevens made a payment to Wakeman and apologized for the original non-payment, which he said arose from confusion and a misunderstanding on the record label's part. On a documentary aired on British television, Wakeman stated that he felt Stevens's version of "Morning Has Broken" was a very beautiful piece of music that had brought people closer to religious truth. He expressed satisfaction in having contributed to this. Wakeman included a 3:42 version on his 2017 album of piano arrangements, "Piano Portraits". The Stevens arrangement changes keys back and forth four times. The first, second, and fourth verses of the song are played in C major, while the instrumental introduction, third verse, and the instrumental ending are played in D major. Although some sources report that the song was released on Floyd Cramer's album "Last Date" (1961), discographies of the artist demonstrate that the song is not on that album. In fact, Cramer did not record the song until 1972, when he used the arrangement that he attributed to Cat Stevens. The song has been recorded by many other artists, including The New Seekers, Steven Curtis Chapman, Judy Collins, Michael Card, Floyd Cramer, Dana, Neil Diamond, Órla Fallon, Art Garfunkel, Ellen Greene, Esther Ofarim, Daliah Lavi, Joe Longthorne, Jojje Wadenius and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (2010), the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Nana Mouskouri, Aaron Neville, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Joseph McManners, Sister Janet Mead, Mary O'Hara, Demis Roussos, Third Day, The Brilliance, Pam Tillis, Hayley Westenra, Roger Whittaker, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Libera (choir), Richard Souther and Dana Winner.