Cat's in the Cradle

"Cat's in the Cradle"
Side-A label of the U. S. vinyl single
Single by Harry Chapin
from the album Verities & Balderdash
B-side	"Vacancy"
Released	October 1, 1974
Recorded	1973
Genre	Folk rock, soft rock[1]
Length	3:44
Label	Elektra
Writer(s)	Harry Chapin Sandra Chapin
Producer(s)	Paul Leka
Certification	Gold
Harry Chapin singles chronology
"Mr. Tanner" (1974) "Cat's in the Cradle" (1974) "I Wanna Learn a Love Song" (1974)

"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 No. 1 hit song, it became the best known of his work and a staple for folk rock music. Chapin's recording of the song was nominated for the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.^[2][3]

Background

The song's lyrics began as a poem written by Harry's wife, Sandra "Sandy" Gaston; the poem itself was inspired by the awkward relationship between her first husband, James Cashmore, and his father, John, a politician who served as Brooklyn Borough President. She was also inspired by a country music song she had heard on the radio.^[4] Harry also said the song was about his own relationship with his son, Josh, admitting, "Frankly, this song scares me to death."^[5]

Lyrical story

The song is told in the first-person by a father who is too busy with work to spend time with his son. Each time the son asks him to join in childhood activities, the father issues vague promises of spending time together in the future. While disappointed, the son accepts his excuses and yearns to "be like you, Dad." The first verse tells of his absence at his son's birth and walking, as "there were planes to catch and bills to pay"; the second verse relates the father buying the son a baseball as a birthday present but likewise declining to play catch.

The final two verses reverse the roles. In the third verse, the son returns home from college and his father finally has some time to spend with him. Instead, the son just wants to go out and asks the father for the car keys. The fourth verse advances the story quite some time, when the father is long retired and his son has started his own family some distance away. The father makes a phone call to his son and invites him for a visit, but the son has his own issues with his job and his children are sick with "the flu." He tells his father he will visit him if he "can find the time" and says "it's been sure nice talking to you" before he says goodbye. The final two lines of the song reflect the father's observation of what has happened:

“

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 song's chorus references several childhood things: The Cat's in the Cradle string game, silver spoons that are given to babies as christening gifts, and the nursery rhymes, Little Boy Blue, and Man in the Moon.

Chart performance

Weekly singles charts Chart (1974) Peak position Australia[6] 6 Canada Top Singles[7] 3 Canada Adult Contemporary [8] 7 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1 U.S. Billboard Easy Listening[9] 6 U.S. Cash Box Top 100[10] 1

Year-end charts Chart (1974) Position Canada 99 Chart (1975) Position Australia[6] 51 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[11] 38

Ugly Kid Joe version

"Cat's in the Cradle"
Single by Ugly Kid Joe
from the album America's Least Wanted
Released	March 25, 1993
Recorded	1992
Genre	Hard rock, pop rock
Length	4:01
Label	Mercury
Writer(s)	Harry Chapin Sandra Chapin
Producer(s)	Mark Dodson
Certification	Gold
Ugly Kid Joe singles chronology
"So Damn Cool" (1992) "Cat's in the Cradle" (1993) "Busy Bee" (1993)

In 1992, the hard rock band Ugly Kid Joe included a cover of "Cat's in the Cradle" on their debut album America's Least Wanted. The cover was issued as a single in 1993 and peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, the group's highest ever position on that chart.^[12] The song also peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The single sold 500,000 copies domestically, earning a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.^[13][14]

Chart performance

Weekly singles charts

Chart (1993)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	6
UK	7
German Singles [15]	10
Austrian Singles	7
Swiss Singles	5
Dutch Top 40 Singles	12
Belgian Singles	20
French Singles	28
Swedish Singles	4
Norwegian Singles	2
Australian Singles	1
New Zealand Singles	4

References

1. "VH1’s 40 Most Softsational Soft-Rock Songs". Stereogum.com. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
2. "Grammy Awards: Best Pop Solo Performance". Retrieved 11 October 2015.
3. "GRAMMY Hall Of Fame List". Retrieved 11 October 2015.
4. Mike Grayeb. "Behind the Song: Cats in the Cradle". Harrychapin.com. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
5. "Chapin's introduction in a live performance of the song: "Cat's In The Cradle"". Youtube.com. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
6. http://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=35092
7. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=7096&
8. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.3886&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.3886.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.3886
9. http://www.billboard.com/charts/adult-contemporary/1974-11-23
10. http://50.6.195.142/archives/70s_files/19741228.html
11. http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1975.htm
12. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ugly-kid-joe-mn0000174007/awards
13. "Best-Selling Records of 1993". Billboard (BPI Communications) 106 (3): 73. January 15, 1994. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
14. "American certifications – Ugly Kid Joe – Cats in the Cradle". Recording Industry Association of America.
15. Chartsurfer.de

External links

• Lyrics at The Harry Chapin Archive
• Guitar Tabs and Chords at Fretbase