Was Dog a Doughnut

Recorded between September 1976 and March 1977 during the Izitso sessions, with Cat Stevens working across Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sound 80, Ardent Studios, Le Studio, and Sweet Silence Studios. Stevens wrote the instrumental with Bruce Lynch and Jean Roussel, with Lynch on bass and sequencer, Roussel on synthesizers, Chick Corea on electric piano, and Ray Gomez on electric guitar. Released by Island and A&M in 1977 on Izitso, Was Dog a Doughnut? marked one of Stevens's most explicit moves into synthesizer and sequencer-based recording. Its mechanical rhythm and electronic arrangement stood apart from his singer-songwriter catalogue and drew attention as an unusually forward-looking album track. The track later gained notice as an early pop-rock experiment with elements associated with electro and hip-hop production. Its place in Izitso made it a recurring reference point in reassessments of Stevens's late-1970s electronic work.