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Cat Stevens ( Steven Demetre Georgiou) best known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is a British musician of Greek Cypriot and Swedish ancestry. He is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist and prominent convert to Islam.
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Georgiou was sent to a Catholic school, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School in Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on Drury Lane.
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For the first recording session proper, Hurst chooses Steve%u2019s %u201CI Love My Dog,%u201D which he allies with a staccato, tympani%u2013and%u2013viola arrangement unlike anything on the pop charts at the time.
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With its sly blend of Dickensian imagery and Carnaby Street musical jangle (the latter courtesy of Hurst and his arranger Allen Tew), the single %u201CMatthew and Son%u201D takes Britain by storm, reaching No. 2 in the chart and turning Cat Stevens into a pop phenomenon.
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New Masters. A darker, deeper album than its predecessor, with better songs%u2014notably Steve%u2019s own version of %u201CThe First Cut%u201D and the widescreen %u201CKitty%u201D and %u201CNorthern Wind.%u201D
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A nagging cough, ignored as probably the result of too much drinking, smoking and fast living, is diagnosed as tuberculosis, resulting in an emergency three%u2013month stay at King Edward VII Hospital, a National Health facility in the country, and the better part of nine more at home in bed
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Single: Lady D%u2019Arbanville/Time/Fill My Eyes. A melancholy %u201Colde English%u201D ballad in which the lady in question (Steve%u2019s ex%u2013girlfriend at the time) is metaphorically laid to rest
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Mona Bone Jakon. The newly reflective Cat Stevens emerges with a set of plaintive and highly personal songs.
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Tea For the Tillerman. The second Island album is the first to be issued in America under Steve%u2019s newly%u2013minted deal with A&M Records (%u201CMona%u201D will belatedly follow before the year%u2019s end).
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Teaser and the Firecat. This one puts three singles into the charts and puts Cat Stevens on the map in America, where nothing from the %u201CI Love My Dog%u201D era had ever registered.
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Catch Bull at Four. An ambitious and musically diverse project, %u201CCatch Bull at Four%u201D is recorded at the Chateau d%u2019Herouville in France, at Manor Studios, Oxfordshire, and at Morgan Studios in London, where %u201CTea%u201D and %u201CTeaser%u201D had been created.
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Foreigner. A very R&B%u2013infused and keyboard%u2013based collection, %u201CForeigner%u201D displays a 180%u2013degree stylistic turn
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Buddha and the Chocolate Box. Co%u2013produced by Cat Stevens and Paul Samwell%u2013Smith at Sound Techniques in London; reaches #2 USA and #3 U.K.
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, a live LP from the Bamboozle tour, is released in Europe and Japan as a UNICEF benefit. Recorded June 21/22 at Sun Plaza Hall, Tokyo.
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Recorded in the spring amidst the snowy Laurentian mountains at Le Studio Quebec, Morin Heights, Canada, where he hoped a change of scenery would nourish the muse, the album is subtitled %u201CA Pythagorean Theory Tale%u201D and represents his current infatuation with numerology.
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In 1976 Stevens nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, California and shouted: %u201COh God! If you save me I will work for you.%u201D He says, right afterward, a wave appeared and carried him back to shore. This brush with mortality intensified his long-held quest for spiritual truth. He had looked into "Buddhism, Zen, and I Ching, Numerology, tarot cards and Astrology".[16]
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Izitso. Produced by Steve and David Kershenbaum, the album was recorded in studios in Massachusetts, Alabama and Denmark, places where Steve %u2013 a rootless tax exile %u2013 has been living in hotels with his %u201Cmobile vegetarian flight case.%u201D
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Stevens' brother David Gordon brought him a birthday gift from a recent trip to Jerusalem.[8] It was a copy of the Qur'an. Stevens took to it right away, and began to find peace with himself and began his transition to Islam.
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Stevens formally converted to the Islamic faith on 23 December 1977, becoming a Muslim.
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Back to Earth. The old team has come together to complete the final record.
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Stevens took the name Yusuf Islam. 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.[
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Yusuf Islam marries Fauzia Ali at Regent%u2019s Park Mosque, the 1000th wedding to take place there. Yusuf has moved back to Britain, and he purchases a home next to his mother in Hampstead Garden Suburb.
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Yusuf makes the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Makkah to the House of God built by Prophet Abraham. He auctions his musical instruments and gold records, the proceeds divided between Help The Aged and Capital Radio%u2019s Help A London Child campaign. Over the next decade he will help found and support numerous other charities.
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Yusuf visits Turkey, where he pledges financial support for victims of the recent earthquake.
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An Other Cup. Yusuf%u2019s first mainstream release for almost 30 years, sounding a lot like %u2018Cat Stevens%u2019 to the delight of many of his enduring fans.
