Australian singles chart:
Morning Has Broken entered the Kent charts on 13 March 1972 and peaked at #4. The song was #31 on the Top 100 of 1972.
Album:
The song is on Teaser and the Firecat which entered the Kent album charts on 15 November 1971. It reached #1 on 6 December 1971 and held the top spot for a total of 15 weeks between then and the following March.
Arranger:
Cat Stevens
Lyrics:
Eleanor Farjeon
Music:
Bunessan (traditional)
Additional music:
Rick Wakeman
Producer:
Paul Samwell-Smith
Record label of Australian release:
Island
Wikipedia:
Rick Wakeman, who was a session musician at the time, played the piano on this track, marking the first time he appeared on a hit single. He joined Yes a short time later.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Has_Broken
Songfacts:
Stevens got the lyrics for Morning Has Broken from a hymn book he found at a bookstore while looking for (public domain) song ideas. It was a children’s hymn by Eleanor Farjeon, who also wrote a lot of children’s poetry. Stevens explained on The Chris Isaak Hour: “I accidentally fell upon the song when I was going through a slightly dry period and I needed another song or two for Teaser And The Firecat. I came across this hymn book, found this one song, and thought, ‘This is good’. I put the chords to it and then it started becoming associated with me.”
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/cat-stevens/morning-has-broken
Lyrics:
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
Find more songs to enjoy: Bang a Gong song finder
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