Cat Stevens Gave This 1971 Hit Away Before Recording It Himself

You know a song is something special when it can become a hit several times over in wildly disparate styles. “Wild World”, the touching song by Cat Stevens that he first released in 1970, enjoyed that kind of success.

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Many folks heard it as a message of farewell to a lover leaving someone behind. But Stevens might actually have been delivering a little bit of advice to himself with the song.

Cat’s Career Swerve

One of the hallmarks of a legendary artist is the ability to bounce back from the setbacks that inevitably pop up in one’s career or life. For Cat Stevens, it was a serious illness that threatened to put the kibosh on a promising career that included several big hit singles in his native Great Britain in 1966 and ’67.

Stevens dealt with a bout of tuberculosis in 1969 that very nearly ended his life. As one often does in such a situation, he began to reassess everything about his life, including his career path. The teen idol status he once attained didn’t interest him anymore. Instead, he wanted to make music of greater depth.

The transformation began with the 1970 album Mona Bone Jackson. It was his first collaboration with both producer Paul Samwell-Smith and guitarist Alun Davies, two men who helped shape Stevens’ introspective new material. On a hot streak, the men churned out Tea For The Tillerman later in the year, the album that made Stevens a superstar. “Wild World” got the ball rolling.

Into the “Wild”

Interestingly, Stevens didn’t originally think much of “Wild World”. Perhaps that’s why he agreed to help Jimmy Cliff make a reggae version of the song before Stevens even finished his take on the song. Cliff’s take became a hit as well, but not before Stevens, reassessing the song’s worth, finished his own recording to make it a worldwide hit.

Many people over the years tied the song to Stevens’ relationship with actress Patti D’Arbanville. While D’Arbanville certainly inspired several songs from that era, Stevens later explained that “Wild World” was a kind of message to himself as he embarked on this new chapter of his career.

“Wild World” kicked that chapter into another gear. In particular, it became the first Stevens’ song to make it big in America, hitting No. 11 on the pop charts. His next nine singles would all hit the US Top 40, making him one of the most successful singer-songwriters of his era.

Behind the Lyrics of “Wild World”

While Stevens might have been referencing his own voyage, “Wild World” works well as a fond, concerned farewell to someone moving on to new things in life. The narrator confesses his sorrow. “And it’s breakin’ my heart you’re leavin’,” Stevens sings. But he still worries about her going forward. “Hope you have a lot of nice things to wear,” he explains. “But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there.”

He speaks from hard-earned experience. “You know I’ve seen a lot of the world can do,” he admits. And he worries that she might not realize what’s in store for her. “It’s hard to get by just upon a smile.”

Many have covered “Wild World” over the years, with Jimmy Cliff and Maxi Priest each scoring reggaefied hits with it. But there’s something about the tenderness of Cat Stevens’ original take that makes it one of the most touching hits to come flowing out of the prime singer-songwriter era.

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