"If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" is a popular song by

Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later in ...

. It first appeared in the 1971 film ''

Harold and Maude ''Harold and Maude'' is a 1971 American romantic black comedy–drama film directed by Hal Ashby and released by Paramount Pictures. It incorporates elements of dark humor and existentialist drama. The plot follows the exploits of Harold Chasen ...

''. Stevens wrote all the songs in ''Harold and Maude'' in 1970–1971, during the time he was writing and recording his ''

Tea for the Tillerman ''Tea for the Tillerman'' is the fourth studio album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, released in November 1970. Overview Stevens' second album released during the year 1970, ''Tea for the Tillerman'' includes many of his best-known songs suc ...

'' album. However, "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" and two other songs from that period were not released as singles nor placed on any album at that time. No official soundtrack was released from the film at that time. The song was finally released later on Stevens' 1984 album, '' Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2'' along with his other previously unreleased songs. In addition, it appeared on the UK edition of his 2003 album ''

The Very Best of Cat Stevens ''The Very Best of Cat Stevens'' is the title of a compilation album by Cat Stevens. There are multiple albums released with this title. The first was released by Polygram on its recently acquired Island Records label in January 1990. Its c ...

''.

Official soundtrack (2007)

The first official

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ...

to the film was released in December 2007, by Vinyl Films Records, as a vinyl-only limited edition release of 2500 copies. It contained a 30-page oral history of the making of the film, the most extensive series of interviews yet conducted on ''Harold and Maude''.

Other appearances in other media

In 2007, a rendition of "Sing Out" appeared in the film ''

Charlie Bartlett ''Charlie Bartlett'' is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Jon Poll. The screenplay by Gustin Nash focuses on a teenager who begins to dispense therapeutic advice and prescription drugs to the student body at his new high school in or ...

''. The song is featured in the TV shows '' My Name Is Earl'' and '' Ray Donovan''. It was featured as the 2nd song of

Rodney Mullen John Rodney Mullen (born August 17, 1966) is an American professional skateboarder who practices freestyle skateboarding and street skateboarding. He is considered one of the most influential skaters in the history of the sport, being credited fo ...

's skateboarding part in the Plan B video, ''Questionable''. The song is also the theme to the BBC Radio sitcom ''

North by Northamptonshire ''North by Northamptonshire'' is a BBC Radio 4 comedy, written by Katherine Jakeways, that takes place in Northamptonshire. The first series was transmitted in the summer of 2010, the second series in December 2011 and January 2012 and the thir ...

''. As of fall 2016, the song appears in a commercial for the 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Cover versions

* The song has been covered by Bloomington, Indiana's

folk punk Folk punk (known in its early days as rogue folk) is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by the Pogues in England, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in ...

pioneers Ghost Mice under the shortened title "Sing Out". * The song has been covered by Death By Chocolate in 2001, on their first, self-titled album * In August 2009, Yusuf Islam approved his original recording of the song for use in a

T Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...

television commercial. Wyclef Jean also made an upbeat remix of the song for a later T Mobile commercial that aired in December 2009. * Folk music/ bluegrass band

Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem Rani Arbo and the band Daisy Mayhem, consisting of Andrew Kinsey, Anand Nayak, and Scott Kessel, are an American musical group whose style combines folk, country blues, progressive bluegrass, jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in ...

covered the song for their 2010 album ''Ranky Tanky''. * The song has also been covered by

Amanda Palmer Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer (born April 30, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and performance artist who is the lead vocalist, pianist, and lyricist of the duo The Dresden Dolls. She performs as a solo artist and was also a ...

. * The song has been covered by Jim Gill on his 1995 children's album ''Jim Gill Makes It Noisy In Boise, Idaho''. * German bitpop band Welle: Erdball covered the song on their album ''Der Kalte Krieg'' (2011). * The song was covered by James Marsden, Ariana Greenblatt and Jacob Collier in the 2021 animated feature '' The Boss Baby: Family Business''.

References

{{authority control Cat Stevens songs 1971 songs Songs written for films Songs written by Cat Stevens Song recordings produced by Paul Samwell-Smith