Cat's in the Cradle
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| "Cat's in the Cradle" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Harry Chapin | |
| from the album Verities & Balderdash | |
| B-side | "Vacancy" |
| Released | 1974 |
| Genre | Folk rock |
| Length | 4:02 |
| Label | Elektra Records |
| Writer(s) | Harry Chapin Sandra Chapin |
| Producer | Paul Leka |
| Certification | Gold |
"Cat's in the Cradle" is a 1974 folk rock song by Harry Chapin from the album Verities & Balderdash. The single topped the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1974. As Chapin's only #1 hit song, it became the best known of his work and a staple for folk rock music.
The lyrics to the verses of the song were originally written as a poem by Chapin's wife, Sandy Chapin, who is credited as the song's co-writer.[1] The poem itself was inspired by the awkward relationship between Sandy Chapin's first husband, James Cashmore, and his father, a New York City politician. She was also inspired by a country song she heard on the radio. More than a year later, after the birth of his own son, Harry added the music and the chorus. Label executive David Geffen selected the song as a single, over Chapin's objections.[2]
Contents |
[edit] The story
The song is told in first-person by a father who is too busy to spend time with his son. Though the son repeatedly asks him to join in childhood activities, the father always responds with little more than vague promises of spending time together in the future, which is peppered with images from nursery rhymes. While the son longs to spend time with his father, he continues to admire his father as a role model and tells him that he will be just like him when he is an adult. The third verse shows the son now having his own life in college and the father now wants to spend time with him. However, like his father, the son now does not have time for his father, pursuing his own life.
Years pass and the aging father, who is now retired and free from the constraints of work, desires yet again to spend time with his son, who by this time has a family himself. Hoping to make up for lost time, the father reaches out to him again. The son however has his own life and family to worry about; he warmly responds that he is now too busy with his own work and family to spend time with his father. Like his father once had, the son promises that someday in the future they will spend time together. The last verses end with the lines "I'd love to dad if I could find the time/You see my new job's a hassle and the kids have the flu/But it's sure nice talking to you, dad … And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me/He'd grown up just like me/My boy was just like me …". The father realizes that his son is now giving him vague promises exactly like he once did to his son. The final line also says that the son's prediction about growing up to be like his father came true, although not in a way the father would have liked, but rather that the son is now making the same promises for future quality time as his own father once did to him.
The first two times the chorus is sung, it uses the concluding lines "When you coming home dad?/I don't know when/But we'll get together then/We're gonna have a good time then...", and the last two times, it replaces the word "dad" with "son" and also contains the slightly-altered line "But we'll get together then dad". The Ugly Kid Joe cover version (see below) does not make this lyrical change but rather amends the grammatical structure of the final chorus to reflect "When you coming home?/Dad, I don't know when..." However,a woman shouts"hey banana!"at the beginning of the song. The chorus refers to the following nursery rhymes:
[edit] Confusion credited to Cat Stevens
"Cat's in the Cradle" is widely mistakenly credited to artist Cat Stevens, in part due to a mistitled MP3 version of the song widely circulated on the internet. As well, the song and the singer both contain the word, 'Cat'. In 1977, Stevens' former label, Deram Records released a compilation album, Cat's Cradle.[3] Jack Black contributed to this confusion, playing part of the song in a Saturday Night Live sketch where Black's character claimed the song was by Yusuf Islam, a.k.a. Cat Stevens. There are no known verifiable recordings of Cat Stevens performing the song, however, and a Cat Stevens fan web site assures readers that Stevens has never performed the song, "not live, not in the studio, and not even privately".
The cover of the song by Ugly Kid Joe is furthermore often confused for a cover by Guns n' Roses, a band which never recorded the song. This is due to an incorrect MP3 circulating on (for example) Limewire; which contains the Ugly Kid Joe version even though the file credits it to Guns n' Roses.[4]
[edit] Usage in popular culture
 |
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2008) |
| "Cat's in the Cradle" | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Single by Ugly Kid Joe | |
| from the album America's Least Wanted | |
| Released | 1993 |
| Recorded | 1991–1992 at Devonshire Studios, North Hollywood, CA |
| Genre | Heavy metal |
| Length | 4:02 |
| Label | Mercury Records |
| Writer(s) | Harry Chapin Sandra Chapin |
- The song has since been recorded by artists such as Johnny Cash, Ricky Skaggs, Nick Randall, Finn Kalvik, Ugly Kid Joe, and Mandy Patinkin. More recently, rapper DMC released a song and video in 2006, entitled "Just Like Me," which uses guitar samples and the chorus from "Cat's in the Cradle," with the chorus sung by Sarah McLachlan. The video gives credit and thanks to Harry Chapin and the Chapin Family at the end.
- Despite seeming social and political differences with Chapin, Dr. James Dobson often quotes the entirety of "Cat's In The Cradle" to illustrate dynamics of contemporary American families.
- The Ugly Kid Joe cover of the song peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 on the UK singles chart, but is still often mistaken for a Skid Row cover of the song.[citation needed] The Ugly Kid Joe version has the apostrophe omitted in some (but not all) releases.
- The Ugly Kid Joe version contains the erroneous phrase "the man ON the moon" instead of "the man IN the moon," an apparent reference to the 1969 Neil Armstrong lunar landing instead of the imaginary "face" that people see when they gaze at the full moon.
- The Norwegian singer/guitarist Finn Kalvik released a Norwegian version in 1975, entitled "Ride ranke", which charted in Norway.
- The Hungarian singer/guitarist Zorán Sztevanovity released a Hungarian language version on his 2004 album A Körben ("In the Circle"), entitled: "Üres bölcsőt ringat a Hold fénye".
- The television series Get a Life spoofed the song in an episode where Chris and his father take part in a father-son activity day, and at the end Chris is glad to have done something with his often cynical father. Chris Elliot then plays the guitar and sings the song, but it is interrupted by him somehow getting conked on the head.
- Manic Larry Baker's parody of the song, "Cat's in the Kettle", (which he wrote and sold to the American Comedy Network in 1991) has been recorded and performed by both Bob Rivers[5] [6] on his Twisted Tunes radio show on KZOK 102.5 FM; and by DJs Jimmy Ray & Jay of WGH-FM Eagle 97.3 (Norfolk, Virginia) on their second CD, Ill-Eagles II: Livin' in the House of Hope, Disc 2. The parody plays with the urban myth that Chinese restaurants in America use cat meat to pad out their food. As with the erroneous attributions of Chapin's song to Stevens, this parody is frequently incorrectly attributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic, a source of irritation to Yankovic.[citation needed]
- The song was used as the music bed for a Northern Ireland Office anti-terrorism advertising campaign in the late 1980s, in which a man who commits a mass shooting in a pub loses his son in a terrorist attack many years later. The line "... my boy was just like me" plays as the son's coffin is lowered into the ground.
- At the end of the US television series Scrubs Season 4 episode "My Unicorn", when the character Murray (played by Matthew Perry) admits to his father (who isn't his biological father) that he loves him. The dad (played by Matthew Perry's father John Bennett Perry) then proceeds to sing the song "Cat's in the Cradle" before Murray tells him not to sing it.
- In the animated television series The Simpsons episode "Saturdays of Thunder", Homer hears the song when the National Fatherhood Institute puts him on hold. Also, in the episode "Bart's Girlfriend", Homer sings part of the chorus after watching Bart grow increasingly infatuated with Jessica Lovejoy.
- In the television series 'Til Death episode "I Heart Woodcocks", the song plays when Eddie puts Jeff's tape on his car stereo, though the captioning states the song is "Cat Steven's Cat's in the Cradle."
- In the Canadian television series Brothers By Choice (1986), Max and Laura Williams sing the song at the end of Episode 4.
- In the 2007 movie Shrek the Third, Donkey sings the chorus line (to Shrek's irritation) when Shrek learns that he is going to be a father.
- The song is heard as an "awesome party song" in a 2008 episode of Lil Bush.
- Marty Wright (The Boogeyman) sang a verse from the song to Vince McMahon on WWE Monday Night Raw on August 13, 2007.
- In an episode of the television series Camp Lazlo, Mr. Lumpus becomes the father of one of the campers after he turns himself in a baby. He grows rapidly, and the camper turns against him, saying he's a bad father. Lumpus cries, saying, "Cat's in the Cradle! Cat's in the Cradle!"
- In the first episode of the Adult Swim animated television series Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Harvey makes an allusion to the song when speaking to Jonny Quest when he says, "Hmm... The cat's in the cradle, and the silver ball...".
- In the Friends episode "The One With Chandler's Dad", Chandler states "It's all very 'Cat's in the Cradle'" when explaining to Monica his estranged relationship with his drag queen father.
- In a late episode of the television sitcom Mad About You, a pregnant Jamie asks Paul whether he is going to be "like the father in 'Cat's Cradle'."
- In the television sitcom Will & Grace Episode 14 of Season 4, "Dyeing Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard", Jack sings the song's chorus mournfully when Bonnie will not allow Jack to see his son Elliot.
- In the television sitcom Two and a Half Men episode "Taterhead is Our Love Child", Alan sings the song when Charlie thinks he has a son.
- In the How I Met Your Mother episode "Not A Father's Day", Barney sings the song at a karaoke bar in the episode's last scene.
- Performed by Dilana on Rock Star: Supernova.
- The song was referred to and played on the Radio Four programme Something Understood on October 12, 2008, which was discussing family ties. The presenter, Mark Tully, used the song to illustrate how parents, in bringing up their offspring, may find traits they secretly dislike in themselves being echoed in their offspring.
- It was covered by Johnny Cash on the album Boom Chicka Boom.
- The TV sitcom Boy Meets World makes a reference to the song in the way of episode titles. One episode entitled "We'll have a good time then" and one entitled "I'm gonna be like you, Dad".
- The song was used extensively as part of a sermon on 'Honour Your Father and Mother', quoted and played in full by Pastor John Snelgrove of the Vine Christian fellowship in Hong Kong.
- At the end of the animated show King of the Hill episode "What Happens at the National Propane Gas Convention in Memphis Stays at the National Propane Gas Convention", the song plays as Buck Strickland and his son say goodbye to each other.
- The Capitol Steps satirical musical ensemble made a parody of this song called "Aristocrats from the Cradle". It was recorded on their album Springtime for Liberals.
- In "The Son Also Draws", an episode of the animated television series Family Guy, Peter finally listens to his son Chris when he tells him he no longer wants to be a Boy Scout. As they hug, the trees start to sing the chorus of "Cat's in the Cradle" until one of the trees is accidentally lit on fire.
- A cover of the song was used as the backing track to the long-running and lengthy "Don't Suffer It, Change It" anti terrorism advert in Northern Ireland. Running for 2:30, the advert carried much of the song, and used it to portray much of its meaning, as it had no spoken content until the end.
[edit] The Lyrics
My child arrived just the other day He came to the world in the usual way But there were planes to catch and bills to pay He learned to walk while I was away And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad You know I'm gonna be like you"
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man on the moon When you comin' home dad? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son You know we'll have a good time then
My son turned ten just the other day He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok" And he walked away but his smile never dimmed And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah You know I'm gonna be like him"
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man on the moon When you comin' home son? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son You know we'll have a good time then
Well, he came home from college just the other day So much like a man I just had to say "Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?" He shook his head and said with a smile "What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys See you later, can I have them please?"
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man on the moon When you comin' home son? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son You know we'll have a good time then
I've long since retired, my son's moved away I called him up just the other day I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind" He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad It's been sure nice talking to you"
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me He'd grown up just like me My boy was just like me
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man on the moon When you comin' home son? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son You know we'll have a good time then..
| Preceded by "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single December 21, 1974 |
Succeeded by "Angie Baby" by Helen Reddy |
[edit] References
- ^ Joel Whitburn, Top Pop Singles 1955-1999 (Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2000), 109.
- ^ "Mike Grayeb, Behind The Song: Cat's In The Cradle" , Circle!
- ^ "London Collector: Cat's Cradle". Allmusic. Macrovision. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:w9fwxq85ld6e~T0. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
- ^ http://en.allexperts.com/q/Guns-N-Roses-471/cats-cradle-1.htm#b
- ^ Bob Rivers details
- ^ Bob Rivers' "Cat's in the Kettle" song details
