Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf was born on this day in London. A poor student in all subjects except Art, Stevens began a performing career in 1965 after being inspired to learn the guitar after hearing the Beatles.
As an 18 year old he had his first album Matthew and Son reach #2 in the UK. His second album went nowhere, but it did include a song that would win him a Songwriter of the Year Award 40 years later – a song popularized by Rod Stewart The First Cut is the Deepest.
1970’s Tea for the Tillerman pushed Stevens into the international spotlight, selling more than 500,000 copies in its first six months.
A 1976 near drowning in California led Cat Stevens to re-evaluate his religious beliefs and ultimately convert to Islam in 1977. He changed his name to Yusuf Islam and discontinued his career in pop music. After one last show, Yusf would not perform again for more than two decades.
Slowly Yusuf resumed a recording career, beginning with religious recordings with no accompaniment other than percussion. Yusuf said that his abandonment of his career was misguided, and returned to recording with a benefit version of Peace Train recorded with David Bowie and Paul McCartney.
In 2006 Yusuf released his first new pop album in 30 years with An Other Cup and in 2017 won a Grammy for his first album that returned to the name Cat Stevens . In 2019 Yusuf was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
