Year of the Cat (Japanese Pressing)

Stunning Japanese pressing with highly collectable OBI strip. Pristine vinyl, very nice clean cover. Includes 4-page insert.

Year of the Cat is the seventh studio album by Al Stewart, released in 1976 and was produced and engineered by Alan Parsons; it is considered his masterpiece,^[3] its sales helped by the hit single "Year of the Cat", "one of those 'mysterious woman' songs,"^[4] co-written by Peter Wood. The other single from the album was "On the Border". Stewart wrote "Lord Grenville" about the Elizabethan sailor and explorer Sir Richard Grenville (1542–1591).^[5]

Stewart had all of the music and orchestration written and completely recorded before he even had a title for any of the songs. In a Canadian radio interview he stated that he has done this for six of his albums, and he often writes four different sets of lyrics for each song.^[6] The title track derives from a song Stewart wrote in 1966 called "Foot of the Stage" with prescient lyrics about Tony Hancock, one of Britain's favourite comedians who tragically committed suicide two years later.^[7] When Stewart discovered that Hancock was not well known in the United States, he went back to his original title "Year of the Cat".^[8]