Be One of Us #16 - "Year of the Cat"

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Time now for an all-time favorite in today's edition of Be One of Us, a random countdown of 50 songs with "of" in the title. We are at #16: "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart. British singer/songwriter Al Stewart's title track to his masterpiece 1976 album is, to me, one of those "perfect" songs. So well crafted that absolutely nothing sounds out of place within the tune's 6 1/2 minutes, despite a pretty hefty assortment of instruments. Of course, that's really no surprise considering that the entire album was produced by genius producer Alan Parsons. It was Parsons' idea, for instance, that the song needed a saxophone solo, and rang up saxophonist Phil Kenzie, who was watching a movie and had no interest but went to the studio anyway, nailed it in a couple of takes, and returned home to finish his flick. Stewart reportedly didn't care much for those sax interludes, but says that they did eventually grow on him. Enjoy this fantastic performance of the song on an episode of the British music television show, The Old Grey Whistle Test. Utterly brilliant! (Info verified by Wikipedia)