Cat's in the Cradle

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"Cat's in the Cradle," is a song by American singer/songwriter Harry Chapin. It appeared on Chapin's 1974 album Verities & Balderdash.

It was written by Harry's wife Sandy, a poet and writer, long before the birth of their son Joshua. When Sandy showed it to Harry, he had only casual interest. After Joshua's birth, Harry realized just how much the song meant to him and, after reworking the song, eventually recorded it. The song became the best known of Harry's work and a staple for folk rock music.

[edit] The Story

The song is told in first person, and relates the story of 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 future quality time. Meanwhile, the son grows up loving and admiring his father, seeing him as a strong model of manhood, and determines that he will grow up in his image.

Years pass and the lonely, aging father finally desires to spend time with his child. Hoping to make up for lost time, he reaches out to him. The son however has grown up and begun his own life; he warmly reponds that he is now too busy with his own work and family to spend time with (or even talk to) his father. Like his father once had, the son promises that someday in the future they will spend time together. The last verse ends 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 …". This indicates that, as the father sadly realizes, the son has taken after the father in that he has become too occupied with his own life to spend time with a loving family member.

[edit] Covers & Use In Popular Culture

• The song has since been recorded by artists such as Johnny Cash, Ricky Skaggs, Guns n' Roses, 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.

• Many people mistakenly believe the song to be the work of artist Cat Stevens, and a mis-titled MP3 version is widely circulated on the internet. 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."^{[citation needed]}

• Singer Bob Rivers wrote a parody of the song, entitled "Cats In The Kettle", which plays with the stereotype 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 has been attributed incorrectly to "Weird Al" Yankovic - a source of irritation to Yankovic, who eschews the use of racist humor.

• The song was used as the music bed for a Northern Ireland Office anti-terrorism advertising campaign in the late 1980s.

• In the end of one episode of Family Guy, the trees sing the song when Peter hugs Chris.

• At the end of the Scrubs, season 4 episode "My Unicorn" when the character Murray (played by Matthew Perry) admits to his dad (who isn't actually his biological father) that he loves him. The dad (played by Perry's father John Bennet Perry) then proceeds to sing the song "Cat's in the Cradle" before Murray tells him not to.

• In The Simpsons episode "Saturdays of Thunder", Homer hears the song when the National Fatherhood Institute puts him on hold.

• In the 'Til Death episode "I Heart Woodcocks" the song plays when Eddie puts Jeff's tape on his car stereo.