Saturday Morning Records: #13 — Cat Stevens’ Greatest Hits

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To be clear, though there are pictures, I am talking about the 1975 greatest hits compilation called “Greatest Hits” — the ‘first’ Greatest Hits; not the 1990 compilation The Very Best of Cat Stevens, with the animated cat motif referencing the classic 70s albums that generated the musical material, not the 1999 compilation called Remember Cat Stevens, that looks like some Temu/$2 Shop version, and not the 2003 reboot of The Very Best Of.

Those other compilations are fine, and I am spiritually connected in some way to the 1990 Very Best (on cassette tape, of course). But the Greatest Hits album that means the most to me by Cat Stevens is this first one simply called Greatest Hits.

It was one of the first CDs to enter our home; my father somewhat elated at the possibility of finally owning some Cat Stevens. He was a huge fan. I later bought the record because I wanted to replicate some of the Family Music Collection when I was creating my own. I sold my copy in The Big Cull, and then only recently re-purchased a copy on vinyl; decided I had to have it. So, a very nostalgic first listen, which, after all, is primarily what vinyl is about. All this use of the word ‘warmth’, we are talking emotional warmth most often, even if we don’t think that’s what we’re saying. Let me just say: That’s What It Is.