Meet Yusuf Islam: The Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is taken from “Meet Yusuf Islam: The Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens” by James Sullivan, 01 st October 2010. The name of the singer’s first single was “I Love My Dog.” From the beginning, Cat Stevens was a star in Britain. “Matthew and Son,” his second song to hit the charts, was kept out of the UK No. 1 spot in early 1967, only by the Monkees’, “I’m a Believer.” The young man who would become pop’s biggest believer had the first of his epiphanies shortly thereafter. After recording two albums’ worth of heavily orchestrated pop songs including, “The First Cut is the Deepest”, the reckless, swinging Londoner fell ill with a case of tuberculosis and a collapsed lung. A year in convalescence led to deep self-examination. By the time the former Steven Demetre Georgiou resurfaced in 1970, he was the quintessential earnest singer-songwriter. In his new guise, Stevens became an inte...