On his return to performance as Yusuf Islam, Stevens made a payment to Wakeman and apologized for the original non-payment, which he said arose from confusion and a misunderstanding on the record label's part. That same year he gave an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live in which he said he had agreed to perform on the Cat Stevens track for £10 and was "shattered" that he was omitted from the credits, adding that he never received the money either. In 2000, Wakeman released an instrumental version of "Morning Has Broken" on an album of the same title. The single reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart and number six on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Stevens's most successful single on the latter chart (later tied by his rendition of " Another Saturday Night"). Wakeman told Stevens he could not as it was his piece destined for a solo album, but Stevens persuaded him to adapt his composition. Stevens told Wakeman that he liked it and wanted something similar as the opening section, the closing section and, if possible, a middle section as well. It was a rough sketch of what would later become " Catherine Howard". Prior to the actual recording Stevens heard Wakeman play something in the recording booth. Producer Paul Samwell-Smith told him he could never put something like that on an album, and that it had to be at least three minutes, though an acoustic demo of an early Stevens version lasts almost three minutes. When shaping "Morning Has Broken" for recording, Stevens started with the hymn, which took around 45 seconds to sing in its basic form. Michael Saward's hymn "Baptized In Water" also uses the tune.Ĭat Stevens recording "Morning Has Broken"Ĭat Stevens' recording, with piano arranged and performed by Rick Wakeman, led to the song being known internationally. The tune is also used for James Quinn hymns, "Christ Be Beside Me" and "This Day God Gives Me", both of which were adapted from the traditional Irish hymn " St. The song is noted in 9Īfter appearing in Lachlan MacBean's Songs and Hymns of the Gael, "Bunessan" was used in the Revised Church Hymnary (1927) and the Appendix (1936) to the Irish Church Hymnal (1919) paired with the nativity text, "Child in the Manger" by the Scottish poet Mary MacDonald (1789–1872), who lived on the Isle of Mull and was born there, near the village of Bunessan for which the tune is named. In Songs of Praise Discussed, the editor, Percy Dearmer, explains that as there was need for a hymn to give thanks for each day, English poet and children's author Eleanor Farjeon had been "asked to make a poem to fit the lovely Scottish tune." A slight variation on the original hymn, also written by Eleanor Farjeon, can be found in the form of a poem contributed to the anthology Children's Bells, under Farjeon's new title, "A Morning Song (For the First Day of Spring)", published by Oxford University Press in 1957. The hymn originally appeared in the second edition of Songs of Praise (published in 1931), to the tune "Bunessan", composed in the Scottish Islands.