Cat Stevens' score for the 1971 cult classic Harold and Maude was more or less a compilation of highlights from his two 1970 albums,
Mona Bone Jakon and
Tea for the Tillerman. The singer/songwriter's introspective folk missives brimmed with coming of age romanticism and an earthy charm that complemented the film's existentialist themes while offsetting its quirky black humor. Additionally, he added two newly written songs, the affirmational "Don't Be Shy" and the eternally hummable "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out," and stripped some of his existing material down to instrumental or alternate versions to serve as incidental music.
Stevens' songs are big part of Harold and Maude's appeal and for many fans, songs like "On the Road to Find Out" and "Trouble" are eternally linked to the movie's free-spirited narrative about the unlikely romance between a melancholic 19-year-old and a woman 60 years his senior. Like most cult classics, the film was a commercial failure in its day and perhaps for licensing reasons, the only soundtrack that was offered omitted the two new songs and the alternate versions which basically turned it into a brief compilation of previously released
Jakon and
Tillerman cuts. "Don't Be Shy" and "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" eventually found their way onto the 1984 anthology Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2., by which time
Stevens had already undergone a religious conversion as Yusuf Islam and the film was slowly accruing its reputation as a misunderstood gem. In 2007, director
Cameron Crowe issued the first complete soundtrack to Harold and Maude in a very limited, vinyl-only edition. Fourteen years later, a remastered and slightly augmented version of the soundtrack (including snippets of dialogue) received a more widespread release from Island/A&M and coincided with the film's 50th anniversary. ~ Timothy Monger