STEVENS, CAT - HAROLD AND MAUDE - RDS YELLOW

Cat Stevens is the former stage name of Steven Demetre Georgiou (born in London on 21 July 1948). He is a British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, humanitarian and education philanthropist. In December 1977, Stevens converted to Islam and adopted the name Yusuf Islam the following year. He began releasing music as Yusuf in 2006. Stevens' albums Tea for the Tillerman (1970) and Teaser and the Firecat (1971) were both certified triple platinum in the US by the RIAA. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release alone and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. He also earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in consecutive years for "The First Cut Is the Deepest"; the song has been a hit single for four different artists. Some of his other hit songs include, "Father and Son", "Wild World", "Peace Train", "Moonshadow" and "Morning Has Broken". In December 1977, Stevens converted to Islam after a near-death experience. 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, becoming an outspoken advocate for the religion. Song and the use of musical instruments is an area of debate in Islamic jurisprudence (law) and is the primary factor Cat Stevens retreated from the pop spotlight. At one point, he wrote to the record companies asking that his music no longer be distributed, but his request was denied. Following Ayatollah Khomeini’s death fatwa against author Salman Rushdie in February 14, 1989 for blasphemy, Stevens made statements that were interpreted as endorsing the Rushdie's assassination: “He [Rushdie] must be killed. The Qur’an makes it clear - if someone defames the prophet, then he must die.” Despite this controversy, he has received several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award, 2004 Man for Peace Award, and 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. After a hiatus of 28 years, he returned to the pop world under the name Yusuf, releasing the albums, An Other Cup (2006) and Roadsinger (2009). Stevens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.