Idon't know if anyone remembers this, but a few months ago there was a pretty sinister diamond commercial on TV: It featured a cover version of Cat Stevens' ""How Can I Tell You?"" (the chorus of the song being: ""How can I tell you that I love you / I love you / But I can't think of right words to say?""), and the commercial showed a happy household in which Wife slips into bed only to find that Husband has placed one of those telltale black felt boxes on her pillow (i.e. if you don't know how to express your feelings about your wife to your wife, buy her diamonds because, apparently, diamonds equal love).
As much as there is to say about the absurdity of the premise of the ad, the thing that really interests me about the commercial is the cover version of the Cat Stevens song. If you're not familiar with the original, I suggest tracking it down and giving it a listen (it's on Teaser and the Firecat, my favorite Cat album)—it's a beautiful song and the cover version does more than justice to it. In fact, the cover version is fantastic. It's performed by Marshall Chan of Cat Power, a woman whose voice is quite breathtaking (for the listener, not herself), and whose piano-playing is often quite stirring.
After I first heard the song in the commercial, I immediately went to the magical Internet (aka the Inter-Web) and punched in ""Cat Power"" + ""Cat Stevens"" and was amazed by the results I got. Literally dozens and dozens of hits, people around the country and of varying ages, posting exactly the same question I had: Where can I get my hands on a copy of this cover? No one seemed to know. Someone had been kind enough to post the 30-second commercial to YouTube, so really desperate fans could at least get their fix that way (which I did—twice). But no one seemed to know where to get the song. It wasn't on any Cat Power albums; it wasn't slated for the upcoming album, and there were no known live versions of it anywhere. The public was stumped. I spent a few days exploring the web for answers, but eventually became discouraged and gave up the hunt.
Then, yesterday, for no reason at all, the cover version of the song popped back into my head. So I figured if anyone had tracked down the full thing, it'd be posted by now, so I went back to the Net. But, as it turns out, Chan's agents and publicists and record label had apparently gotten so much mail about the song that they were forced to release a statement: Chan did not record a full-length version of the song. She recorded 30 seconds of the song for the commercial because the people making the commercial requested a specific 30 seconds (specifically the ""How can I tell you that I love you?"" part) of the song. The full-length version doesn't exist.
And I've got to say, I'm a little pained by the revelation. I'm not going to lose sleep over it or anything, but I really, really wanted to hear the rest of that song. It's the way I felt when Aaron Sorkin left ""West Wing"": Whatever the writers did with the show wouldn't be ""correct""—as far as I was concerned, the story ended right in the middle of things, and I would've given my left arm to see the rest of the ""real story.""
I wonder, does anyone else feel this way: mourning the loss of a thing that never existed in the first place? Let me know if you do. Maybe it'll start a groundswell—it's a little late for ""West Wing,"" but maybe we can convince Chan to hop back into a studio and do the full song. Any takers?
