If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out

"If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out"
US single
Single by Cat Stevens
from the album Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
B-side	"I Want to Live in a Wigwam" (US) "Daytime" (ES)
Released	December 1984
Recorded	1971
Genre	Folk rock, pop rock
Length	2:46
Label	A&M/Island
Songwriter	Cat Stevens
Producer	Paul Samwell-Smith

"If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" is a song by Cat Stevens for the 1971 film Harold and Maude. It was finally released in 1984 as a promo single for Stevens's compilation Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. In addition, it has appeared on the UK edition of his 2003 album The Very Best of Cat Stevens.

Overview

Harold and Maude contained mostly songs from Stevens's 1970 albums Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman, however, Stevens also wrote "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out", as well as another song ("Don't Be Shy") for the movie. Stevens recalled that he "went into Wally Heider’s [studio] in San Francisco and cut these songs that I always wanted to re-record properly, but I never did because he wanted them for the film.” These were not released as singles nor placed on any album at that time.

Stevens later stated that he had "never allowed them to put out the soundtrack because it would have sounded like a collection of greatest hits and I felt like I was only at the start of my career. But I did write two songs for the film. I did the demos in San Francisco and I always meant to do them properly but no, Hal puts them straight into the film and that was it, locked away. I love those recordings now because they’re so raw.” Despite Stevens's wishes, in 1972, the first soundtrack album for Harold and Maude was released by A&M, but exclusive to Japan. It did not contain "Don't Be Shy" or "Sing Out", rather it was more of a greatest hits album, containing songs like "Father and Son" which were not in the original film.

The first 'true' soundtrack album to the film was released in December 2007, by Vinyl Films Records, as a vinyl-only limited edition release of 2500 copies, which were "snapped up right away." It contained an extensive 30-page oral history of the making of the film, as well as a 7" inch of "Sing Out" and "Don't Be Shy".

The soundtrack was reissued for the film's 50th anniversary in 2022, on "general release".

In popular culture

• In 2007, a rendition of "Sing Out" appeared in the film Charlie Bartlett.
• 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's skateboarding part in the Plan B video, Questionable.
• The song is also the theme to the BBC Radio sitcom North by Northamptonshire.
• 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 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 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 covered the song for their 2010 album Ranky Tanky.
• The song has also been covered by Amanda Palmer.
• 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.