Harry Chapin earns a #1 hit with Cat’s In The Cradle
Harry Chapin earned a reputation as a politically conscious singer-songwriter who dedicated himself in the years before his untimely death to various noble causes including wiping out world hunger.Indeed his greatest legacy may stem more from his charitable efforts than from his music itself but for a brief period in the early 1970s Harry Chapin was a legitimate pop star.On this day in 1974 he earned his one and only 1 pop hit when his bittersweet story-song Cats In The Cradle reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100.Before turning his attention to music at the relatively advanced age of 29 Harry Chapin pursued a career as a film director earning an Oscar nomination for his 1968 boxing documentary Legendary Champions.
In 1971 he recruited a backing band via an ad in The Village Voice and recorded his first album.Released in 1972 Heads & Tales included what many fans regard as Chapins signature songTaxi a lushly produced six-minute-plus story song about a San Francisco cab driver and a long-lost love he picks up as a fare.Despite its length Taxi became a hit reaching 24 on the Billboard pop chart in the spring of 1972.
Chapins second and third albums were nowhere near as successful as his first and hed turned his full-time attention to writing a Broadway show when his fourth album Verities & Balderdash unexpectedly became a smash hit on the strength of Cats In The Cradle a tale of an absent father and an endless cycle of intergenerational dysfunction based on a poem written by Chapins wife.Cats In The Cradle was Chapins last big hit and though he retained a loyal fan base through the remainder of the 1970s his work as a social activist during this period was far more significant than his work as a musician.Chapin is widely credited with spurring the creation of the Presidents Commission on World Hunger in 1977 and he shares indirect responsibility for one of the biggest music charity efforts of all time USA for Africa which was organized by Chapins former manager Ken Kragen.
On the occasion of Chapins posthumous award of the Congressional Gold Medal in 1987 Kragen who also organized Hands Across America credited Chapin as his inspiration All of our efforts with hunger and homelessness began with Harry he said.Born December 7 1942 in New York City singer-songwriter Harry Chapin was killed in an auto accident on the Long Island Expressway on July 16 1981.
