Released 23 November 1970 Writer(s) Cat Stevens | Genre Folk rock Producer(s) Paul Samwell-Smith | |
Label Island Records
A&M Records (USA) | ||
"Where Do the Children Play?" is a song by British folk-rock musician Cat Stevens, opening his November 1970 album Tea for the Tillerman.
The song reflects awareness of the turmoil of the late 1960s and the issues involved: war, urban sprawl, poverty, ecological disaster, and the future of humankind. The same themes and concerns are repeated later in many of his songs.
The song was one of several of Stevens's/Islam's songs that were used for the soundtrack of the 1971 movie, Harold and Maude. The film features the song during a scene where lead character Harold is driving past a military graveyard, panning out to show a vast number of little tiny white graves, thus underscoring the point of the song.
In 2005, Stevens/Islam re-recorded the selection as a duet with Dolly Parton on her album Those Were The Days.
The song also featured in the couch gag scene of "Super Franchise Me," an episode of The Simpsons, with various characters from the show acting out some of the song's messages.[incorrect]
In 2017, Garbage recorded a cover of the song for United Nations charity album, Music To Inspire: Artists UNited Against Human Trafficking.