CAT STEVENS’ first girl friend was German, and looked like Elke Sommer.  

"I met her in Austria, where I was on a camping holiday with two friends.

Her name was EIke, too - she was 19, and I was just 15.

My mates and I were moving around the country at first, and then for the last week we stayed in one spot - a beautiful place by a lake, with hills all around and a little town.

We pitched our tent near this girl’s. It wasn’t the best spot - there were houses blocking the view to the lake, but I’d seen her - so I picked the spot nearest her tent!

She was staying with her parents and family, and when I saw her for the first time she was playing ping-pong with her sister. That’s right - ping-pong! I went over and asked her if she’d like to play a game of cards."

They couldn’t find a game they both knew how to play, and laughing about it, soon became friends.

"We went swimming and walking. In fact, we went everywhere together. I just left the two guys.

You see, it was my first girl and I was really crazy about her. I thought she was great, exactly right for me - I was only 15 and she was that much older - and the difference in ages counts a lot at that age.

The whole thing was very straight-forward and uncomplicated, which was why I liked it, I think. It was all give and take. The romance only lasted a week, but when I got back to England I started writing letters to her. I mean, we were going to meet again, and I was going to go and live in Germany - all that kind of stuff.

We wrote these great big letters that said nothing except how much we loved each other. Then I suddenly said to myself, ‘Oh, not another one of those letters!’ And I stopped writing. And that was the end of it."

Cat says he really believes he was in love at the time, probably because she was his first girl friend and the surroundings were romantic.

"She stayed in the background, and was the ‘perfect woman’ - although she wasn’t at all.

I don’t have a perfect woman in my mind. I wouldn’t like to meet one, either, I don’t think. I couldn’t stand it - it’d make me feel unequal!

I don’t understand how people can say things like they don’t like fat girls—one of the Bee Gees said that to one of the music papers a while ago. It’s crazy. Think how many fat girls are going to read it!

And what happens if a girl is fat and she’s got a beautiful personality, and is a marvellous character? What about Mama Cass? I love fat girls - write that down!

Anyway, I don’t think it matters what people look like. I like a warm character in a girl, because when people are generous with me I’m generous with them."

Cat says he is quite prepared to fall in love at first sight, and has done so many times - but has been too scared to follow it up.

"I’ve seen a girl in the street, but never bothered to get to know them. It could be very interesting, but then again there could be something wrong - she might have a high, squeaky voice, and I’d laugh and ruin it all!"

One day, in what he regards as the far distant future, Cat wants to marry and has always thought of himself as a husband and father.

He feels that a marriage starts with a girl giving up a lot, her independence - and so does a man - and thus a bond is created between them. Not a sociable person himself, he would like to have a wife to confide in and to understand him.

"It’s what I need - marriage, to rely on someone. At the moment, I don’t rely on anyone. I don’t allow myself to, just in case I’m ‘done’ - and in case it’s one-sided. But I know I need someone to put my trust in.

I always thought I’d marry a Swedish girl when I was young. I had this romantic illusion of the beautiful Swedish girls being everything a woman should be.

Well, they are - but nothing else, if you see what I mean. They haven’t got the character a British girl’s got - they’ve got nothing to protest about, and they don’t have anything to rebel against. In my woman, I need something a bit rebellious.

Now, I’m certain I’ll marry a British girl in the end."

 [Jackie Magazine, 27.04.1968]

Cat Stevens, bachelor, is lonely. He wants to get married, needs someone to love...and here he details the kind of girl who would make him happy.

At the tender age of fourteen Cat started purring.

He dabbled in love for the first time, and being young and gullible he was easy bait for a tall, blonde sparkling-eyed German girl. Since then he has been in love three times. He wanted to marry the girl each time and is the first to admit that he falls in love easily.

Love first hit him at an Austrian camping site. It was far from a romantic setting, but at that age life doesn't need pretty trimmings.

Cat's just five years older now, but considerably more than five years wiser. He's grown up in a hurry. His thoughts are sophisticated and he philosophises like a man who has seen too much of life. But when it comes to girls and love, all men are the same aren't they?

He is longing to find his type of girl and fall in love.

"I'd hate to say just what my type of girl is. What she looks like doesn't really matter. But honestly I am really searching for someone right now.

You probably think it's funny. Being a pop star and being surrounded by beautiful girls and fans you must think I'm mad to settle down with one. But I want to. I'd marry tomorrow if I found the right girl. The only trouble is I fall in love easily. I'm a very lonely person. I need people, and if a girl shows me a little affection I fall in love. Nobody seems to think I need affection. But I do. I need it badly. And I'd love to have one girl by my side all the time.

She would have to have a mind of her own, be able to think. It would be essential that she was interested in pop, although she must be intelligent enough to realise that the business is an illusion. She must be interested in me and be behind me in everything I do.

She must be smart when she needs to be, but know when to be casual. I don't want a girl who is always looking at herself in the mirror.

I want her to be untidy sometimes. What does it matter if her hair is ruffled?

I am only just beginning to realise what I am like, and I am just realising that I need somebody, and I am looking for someone to love. You don't know what you are like, until you stop and think.

I have been working so much, I am only just having time to stop and think.

The girl that I marry will have to put up with my moods on rainy days. She would have to think for herself, but when it came to decisions I'd be the boss. Mind you, I'd hate someone that did everything I said.

I wouldn't want her to follow me everywhere I went, but if she wants to come on dates sometimes with me I would love her to.

She would have to love children and want to be a housewife. I would love to have two boys, I just love children.

Actually I am shy and especially shy of girls. I suppose you could say I'm afraid of being shunned. Now of course it is impossible for me to go up and ask a girl to dance. In fact it is very difficult for me to go out with girls at all.

But then if I adopted my attitude of being myself I suppose I shouldn't worry about being shunned. Really I believe in doing just what I want to - but it is difficult sometimes.

But I seem to do everything in life very suddenly. I do most things on inspiration. So perhaps I will fall in love, really in love, the same way. Anyway I am looking forward to the day when I do, because when I do, it will be all the way. I don't do anything in halves."

But for Cat at the moment, life has something missing. He's buried himself in his music, and he wonders whether love will make him compose better music or take his mind off writing altogether.

Perhaps music will go by the way but, until then, it is his first love.