“Peace Train” by Cat Stevens

"Peace Train" pulls out of Teaser and the Firecat, Cat Stevens' 1971 album, and it carried the British singer-songwriter further into America than he'd been before: up to number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1971, his first US top 10, and three weeks at the top of the adult contemporary chart.

Paul Samwell-Smith produced, and the crew around Stevens gives it plenty of motion: he sings lead and plays guitar and keyboard, Alun Davies adds guitar, Larry Steele doubles on bass and congas, Harvey Burns and Gerry Conway play drums, two bouzouki players, Angelos Hatzipavli among them, add their color, and Del Newman brings the strings. On the album cut those strings drop away at the finish and leave Stevens' acoustic guitar alone into the fade. He recorded it again for the charity War Child in 2003.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.