One of the keys to the success of Hal Ashby's quixotic black comedy masterpiece, Harold and Maude, was the music of Cat Stevens. As with so many things with Stevens, the story of his contributions has a twist. Concerned at the time about the soundtrack sounding like a greatest hits collection, Stevens refused to let Director Hal Ashby and Paramount Pictures release it as an album. Along with seven previously released Stevens tunes—"On The Road To Find Out," "I Wish, I Wish," "Miles From Nowhere," "Tea for the Tillerman," "I Think I See The Light," "Trouble," and "Where Do The Children Play?"—two new songs, "Don't Be Shy" and the film's theme song, "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" (both unreleased until 1984’s Footsteps in the Dark compilation) and snippets of Tchaikovsky and Strauss were added; the full soundtrack was not released until 2007. New on this first-time digital release are six dialogue interludes, including the first meeting between teenaged Harold and septuagenarian Maude as she is in the process of stealing a car, which give a hint of how the music was integrated with the film, particularly lyrically. "Where Do the Children Play?" intuitively grasps the film's central meanings: "Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry? Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?" When "Trouble" plays behind the scenes of Harold grieving after Maude's death, the lyrics—hitched to one of the melodies that seemingly came so easily to Stevens then—exquisitely express what the film's remaining character is clearly feeling: "Oh trouble can't you see/ You have made me a wreck/ Now won't you leave me in my misery?" Like much in life, the soundtrack to Harold and Maude succeeds by virtue of great timing; Stevens was at the height of his powers and also the right person intellectually and emotionally to appreciate the film's message of living life to its fullest. Rarely has a soundtrack been this integral to a film's success. © Robert Baird/Qobuz