Song · Cat Stevens
“Morning Has Broken” by Cat Stevens
From the album Teaser and the Firecat (1971)
“Morning Has Broken” by Cat Stevens appears on 5 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2009 and 2023. It was first released in 1971 on the album Teaser and the Firecat. Its best result is #520 on the WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,340 indie & aaa song of all time.
Cat Stevens reached back to 1931 for "Morning Has Broken" and put it on Teaser and the Firecat in 1971. It began as a hymn, printed when Songs of Praise went into its second edition: the book's editor, Percy Dearmer, wanted something to give thanks for each new day. Eleanor Farjeon, an English poet who also wrote for children, supplied the words to fit "Bunessan", a traditional Scottish Gaelic melody, taking her inspiration from Alfriston, a village in East Sussex.
Stevens sings the lead, Rick Wakeman sits in at the piano, and Paul Samwell-Smith produced. The result is as gentle as first light, and it caught on so widely that the hymn now belongs to Stevens in most listeners' minds: number six on the Billboard Hot 100, and in 1972 it went all the way to the top of America's easy listening chart.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 900 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Essential Songs | 913 |
| 2020 | 1464 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 776 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2022 | 985 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2022 | 603 |
| 2023 | 520 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.