Songfacts®:

• Unlike humans, dogs love their owners unconditionally (as long as you feed them). In this song, Cat Stevens tells the lady in his life that he loves his dog as much as he loves her. If that backhanded compliment didn't connect, he digs a deeper hole with the line, "You may fade, my dog will always come through."
  
  Stevens was just 17 when he wrote the song, 18 when it was released. In his early material, he often took a churlish view when it came to romantic love.
• There was a real dog that inspired this song. Speaking with Mojo in 2000, Stevens said he found a dachshund (or as he called it, a "sausage dog") tied to a post outside of Foyles bookshop in London when he was young. When nobody claimed the dog, he took it home and grew attached to it.
• This was Cat Stevens' first single, and the song that earned him a record deal. After writing a few songs, he shopped for a record deal but had a hard time getting any interest until he sang "I Love My Dog" in February 1966 for a record producer named Mike Hurst, who loved it but couldn't convince his boss of its merits. Stevens kept working at his father's London restaurant while he waited for a break, but he couldn't find any takers. Hurst took a job in America at Vanguard Records, but decided to record Stevens before he left. A few years earlier, Hurst was part of the folk-pop group The Springfields, which had a few hits in the UK during his tenure. He told Decca he would record a song called "Going Going Gone" that they could release as a single. When they agreed, he blasted through "Going Going Gone," then used most of the session to record Stevens on "I Love My Dog." At the end of the session, Stevens rushed through a song called "Portobello Road" (written by the American producer Kim Fowley, who would later manage The Runaways) as the B-side.
  
  Decca was not pleased, and they never issued "Going Going Gone," but they liked what they heard from Stevens and agreed to release the single on their new label, Deram, which they used for more eclectic acts. Stevens quit his day job, Hurst cancelled his plans for America, and Decca had themselves a hot new artist. "I Love My Dog" reached #28 in the UK, which was pretty good for a first single. His next single, "Matthew And Son," was the payday, reaching #2 (behind "I'm A Believer" by The Monkees).
• With this release, Steven Demetre Georgiou became "Cat Stevens," a name that served him well. "Georgiou" is Greek - his father was born in Cyprus.
• The B-side to this song, "Portobello Road," is an actual street in West London, England, famous for it's open-air flea market. It was also commemorated in the little-known 1971 Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
• After releasing this song, Stevens toured the UK with The Walker Brothers, Engelbert Humperdinck, and an up-and-coming act called The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
• This song made just a dent in America, reaching #118. Stevens had an impact as a songwriter in 1967 with "Here Comes My Baby" by The Tremeloes, but it wasn't until 1971 with his album Tea For The Tillerman that he became known in that country, taking his place on the leading edge of the singer-songwriter movement.
• Musically, this is a very unusual song, with cymbals and snare drum forming the beat, and cello and timpani high in the mix. The British musician Alan Tew worked on the arrangement with Stevens and producer Mike Hurst.
• John Paul Jones, who formed Led Zeppelin two years later, played bass on this track. Jones did a lot of session work at this time.
• The key melody of "I Love My Dog" was borrowed from jazz multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef's "The Plum Blossom," the opening track of his 1962 Eastern Sounds album. Stephens later confessed to Lateef and shared the publishing.