A limited-edition box set commemorating the 45th anniversary of Al Stewart‘s breakthrough 1976 album Year of the Cat will be released on March 26 as a four-disc package featuring three CDs and a DVD-Audio disc.
The expanded collection featured a newly remastered version of the album created by original producer Alan Parsons; a bonus track, “Belsize Blues, recorded in September 1975; a previously unreleased concert Stewart played in October 1976 in Seattle spread across two CDs; and a DVD offering a new 5.1 surround-sound version of the Year of the Cat by Parsons.
Parsons created the Year of the Cat remasters using the original first-generation master tapes.
The box set also comes with an illustrated 68-page book that includes an essay featuring an exclusive interview with Stewart, plus four postcards and a replica poster.
Released in October 1976, Year of the Cat was British singer/songwriter Stewart’s seventh studio album. It featured his first hit single, the title track, which reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as “On the Border,” which fell just short of the chart’s top 40.
The album peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200, and went on to be certified platinum for sales of one million copies in the U.S.
Stewart recorded Year of the Cat in January 1976 at London’s famed Abbey Road Studios.
Here’s the track list for the Year of the Cat 45th anniversary box set:
Disc One: Year of the Cat (Remastered by Alan Parsons)
“Lord Grenville”
“On the Border”
“Midas Shadow”
“Sand in Your Shoes”
“If It Doesn’t Come Naturally, Leave It”
“Flying Sorcery”
“Broadway Hotel”
“One Stage Before”
“Year of the Cat”
Bonus Track:
“Belsize Blues” (Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in September 1975)
Disc Two: Live at The Paramount Theater, Seattle –- October 1976 (Previously Unreleased)
“Apple Cider Re-Constitution”
“The Dark and the Rolling Sea”
“One Stage Before”
“Soho (Needless to Say)”
“Not the One”
“On the Border”
“Broadway Hotel”
“Roads to Moscow”
Disc Three: Live at the Paramount Theater, Seattle — October 1976 (Previously Unreleased)
“Nostradamus”
“Sirens of Titan”
“The Post World War Two Blues”
“Year of the Cat”
“Sand in Your Shoes”
“Carol”
“If It Doesn’t Come Naturally, Leave It”
Disc Four
Year of the Cat album — New 5.1 Surround Sound Mix & Original 96 Khz/24-Bit Re-Mastered Stereo Mix by Alan Parsons
By Matt Friedlander
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