Cat's in the bag with EMI license
Deal covers about 200 songs
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The deal covers about 200 songs, reaching from his earliest hits ("Wild World," "Moonshadow") through 1978, when Stevens turned his back on the music business, became a Muslim and changed his name to Yusuf Islam.
He disavowed his life as a pop star for nearly two decades, but slowly began to embrace his pop past in the late 1990s, becoming involved with promoting the re-releases of albums such as "Tea for the Tillerman" and "Teaser and the Firecat" as well as a boxed set.
His material has been consistently recorded over the last 15 years: He and Ronan Keating did a duet of "Father and Son" in December, and Sheryl Crow had a recent hit with "The First Cut is the Deepest."
'Crown jewels'
"It's very rare to get the opportunity to represent part of the crown jewels of contemporary songwriting," said Peter Reichardt, chairman-CEO, EMI Music Publishing U.K. "Yusuf's songs are completely timeless and as publishers we are now in a position to bring his music to a new generation through media and platforms where, particularly, young consumers now look to find what is, for them, 'new' music."
Islam has been working on a book and musical concept based on his popular songs. It is at the workshop stage.
"I am very optimistic about the new home for the catalog," he said. "Back in 1965 when I first started doing the circuit as a new, budding songwriter, the first company to publish some of my songs was Ardmore and Beechwood, an independent publishing house subsequently acquired by EMI. Today, I'm being paid a little more than 30 quid for a song, which is how much I got in those old days."
Islam was in the news in September when he attempted to the fly to U.S. to work on a recording project in Nashville, Tenn., but was rebuffed by the U.S. government. His name appeared on a "no-fly" list that the Dept. of Homeland Security had issued and instead of making a trip to D.C. and then Nashville, he was flown to Bangor, Maine, then transported to Boston and then sent home to London.
"I am a man of peace and denounce all forms of terrorism and injustice," he wrote soon after the incident. "It is outrageous for the U.S. authorities to suggest otherwise. I have dedicated my life to promoting peace throughout the world."
Islam recently wrote and recorded the song "Indian Ocean" to raise money for tsunami relief efforts.
