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Year of the cat is het zevende studioalbum van Al Stewart. Het is net als voorgaande twee albums geproduceerd door Alan Parsons. De plaats van opname was de Abbey Road Studio in Londen.

Al Stewart had de hier voorgaande albums opgenomen voor CBS, als deel van een contract van drie albums, verlengd met nog eens drie. CBS liet echter weinig van zich horen en Stewart voelde zich niet serieus genomen. RCA Victor was wel in hem geïnteresseerd en ging met hem in zee. EMI, baas van CBS, had direct spijt, want Year of the cat (en opvolger) werd(en) Stewarts meest verkochte album(s). De verkopen stegen doordat de van dit album afkomstige singles eveneens succes hadden, behalve dan in thuisplaats Engeland.

Year of the Cat is the seventh studio album by Al Stewart, released in 1976. It was produced and engineered by Alan Parsons. Its sales helped by the hit single "Year of the Cat", co-written by Peter Wood and described by AllMusic as "one of those 'mysterious woman' songs", the album was a top five hit in the United States. The other single from the album was "On the Border". Stewart wrote "Lord Grenville" about the Elizabethan sailor and explorer Sir Richard Grenville (1542–1591).

Stewart had all of the music and orchestration written and completely recorded before he even had a title for any of the songs. In a Canadian radio interview he stated that he has done this for six of his albums, and he often writes four different sets of lyrics for each song. The title track derives from a song Stewart wrote in 1966 called "Foot of the Stage" with prescient lyrics about Tony Hancock, one of Britain's favourite comedians who died by suicide two years later. When Stewart discovered that Hancock was not well known in the United States, he went back to his original title "Year of the Cat".