Cat Stevens - Morning Has Broken

What this video is

Morning Has Broken is a Christian hymn first published in 1931 with words by Eleanor Farjeon, set to the traditional Scottish Gaelic tune 'Bunessan.' Cat Stevens' recording, featuring piano arranged and performed by Rick Wakeman, appeared on Teaser and the Firecat (1971) and reached #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart in 1972, cementing Stevens as a defining voice of the…

Why it matters

Represents the apex of the early-1970s folk-pop hybridization of sacred and secular music, demonstrating how hymnal source material could be recontextualized for mainstream pop audiences. Stevens' arrangement, via Rick Wakeman's elaborate piano, elevated a 45-second hymn into a 3+ minute…

The director

Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou, 21 July 1948), known as Cat Stevens and later Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter who has sold over 100 million records. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, he converted to Islam in…