In the height of his popularity, “Peace Train” singer Cat Stevens, born Yusuf Islam, had only ever made it as high as a No. 6 hit with his myriad singles, with 1972’s “Morning Has Broken” becoming the first of his tracks to reach that slot (two years later, “Another Saturday Night” would tie it).
But, the beloved folk track, which was born from an English hymn of the same name, was far too short to release at first. It was a touching salute to a new day that the singer-songwriter stumbled upon in a hymn book while looking for new ideas. “It was quite a traditional song sung in the church, and I just did my own arrangement,” he once told Billboard. “I fell in love with the melody and the words, and people think it’s mine.”
Penned in 1931 by author and poet Eleanor Farjeon and set to an old Gaelic melody called “Bunessan,” the track praises the “recreation” of a new day by detailing the wonder in the simple things like a bird’s song or the dew on the grass.
In its original state, it barely hits 45 seconds long, though Stevens’ demo managed to stretch it out a fair bit. Still, producers didn’t feel there was enough to it for a record, and he called in some big guns to help flesh it out into the classic fans know and love—and mistake for his—today.
Stevens had already invited keyboardist Rick Wakeman to play on the album that housed “Morning Has Broken,” Teaser and the Firecat, and leaned on him for not only a spiced-up piano backing, but a little restructuring to build it into the hit it would become.
They started by repeating the first verse at the end, which bumped the run time up to about a minute and ten seconds. Then, Wakeman wove his composition throughout the verses, and they threw in a couple of key changes for good measure. By the time Wakeman was done “sticking in” various bits and pieces, as he recalled during a speaking engagement, they had a “monster, monster hit” that clocked in at over three minutes long—a perfectly respectable length for a Top 10 single.
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