The Delights of Cats and Music
March 12, 2026
Laurie Coughlan
According to doctor, theologian, concert organist, and Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” Indeed, the combination has worked well for centuries to ease human strife, and it appears that cats may find comfort in some forms of music themselves. For hundreds of years there have been special relationships between musicians and cats. Felines have been featured in a wide range of styles of musical compositions, from nursery rhymes and folk songs, to popular and rock songs, contemporary orchestral pieces, movie scores, and even classical, opera, and Broadway music. The songs often tell the cat’s story or reflect the place cats hold in the lives and hearts of their humans.
The first cat-related music many children learn is the circa 1805 nursery rhyme, “Pussycat, Pussycat,” which is sung to a variety of melodies:
Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?
I’ve been to London to visit the Queen.
Pussycat, Pussycat, what did you there?
I frightened a little mouse under her chair.
One of the first noted cat songs suitable for both adults and children is a classical piece attributed to Gioachino Rossini, entitled “Duetto Buffo di due Gatti” (“Humorous Duet for Two Cats”). It is an opera-style comedic piece in which two singers impersonate cats conversing, and the lyrics are all “meow.” Watch the performance here.
In 1949 American popular music brought us Bob Crosby (of the “Bob Cats” interestingly enough) and Patty Andrews singing “The Pussycat Song” (“Nyow? Nyot Nyow!”). A duet between a tomcat and his lady friend, it reflected a time before kitty litter was available and people commonly put their cats out each night.
Come yout, come yout, come yout, my purrty kitten.
We will sing a little tune. (Nyot nyow.)
Come yout, come yout, come yout, my purrty kitten.
We will serenade the moon. (Nyot nyow.)
When the folks got home tonight
At twelve or there about (Meow)
They locked the door and they forgot to put me out.
Feline songs have switched countries and genres. In 1961 The Tokens released a record about a larger species of feline in “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” The song was first composed and recorded a cappella (without instruments) as “Mbube” (“Lion”) by composer Solomon Linda and his South African choir. A folk version was recorded in the USA by Pete Segar and The Weavers in 1952. The Tokens then recorded it as a mixed genre of doo-wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, featuring an operatic soprano on backup vocals. Listen to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
A number of popular and rock and roll singers have sung about a cat’s place in their life and home. In the lyrics of his 1970 song “Our House” about domestic bliss, Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, and Nash included cats as part of what made the Laurel Canyon house he shared with Joni Mitchell a home.
Our house is a very, very, very fine house.
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy ‘cause of you.
Freddie Mercury, a renowned cat lover, included on Queen’s 1991 Innuendo album a song about his beloved Delilah that acknowledged her sometimes less than perfect behavior.
Delilah, Delilah,
Oh my, oh my, oh my.
You’re unpredictable, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh,
You make me so very happy
When you cuddle up and go to sleep beside me,
And then you make me slightly mad
When you pee all over my Chippendale suite.
In 2009, a piano-playing cat named Nora inspired some serious contemporary music. Lithuanian composer and conductor Mindaugas Piečaitis created a “CATcerto” in which an orchestra- accompanied video of soloist Nora.
The most well-known recent work combining cats and music is probably the 1981 Broadway musical Cats, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and based on T. S. Eliot’s 1939 collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. It is the fifth longest-running Broadway show, has been translated into many languages and performed around the world, and later adapted as a motion picture. A series of musical numbers highlights the personalities and stories of individual cats, including the mystical cat, the magical cat, the rock star energy cat, the railroad cat, and the glamour cat fallen on hard times. The song Memory, sung by Grizabella, the abandoned glamour cat, is probably best known from the show. By 2006 there were over six hundred covers of the song in various musical styles by such artists as Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow.
How Do Cats Seem to Feel About Music?
Of course, each cat has its own preferences and opinions, but the author has observed a feline preference for Mozart over Springsteen. Cats have much more sensitive ears than humans. Is it volume, musical structure, or instrumentation that shapes their preferences? Practicing the viola often drew a feline audience, and piano playing usually took place with at least one cat lounging on the instrument, occasionally “helping” with page turning. Brass instruments such as trumpet and trombone tend not to attract cats. Vocal music seems the favorite in this household, without fail drawing an audience of Egyptian Maus and household pets. Perhaps they associate human voice with feeding time, but they don’t leave when food isn’t offered. Ian Anderson of the rock band Jethro Tull says he has a cat that absolutely loves to hear him play the flute.
Of course, cats are famously independent thinkers. Musician and CFA judge Bethany Colilla notes that her cats have had opposite reactions to music:
A longhair exotic of mine, Believers It’s So Fluffy!, hated music. She didn’t like it at all when I sang. I could be sitting on the sofa minding my own business singing along with a musical or even just a song from a commercial. She would launch herself out of nowhere and bite me. I have classically-trained voice and sang with choirs in college, but she took the utmost offense to me singing.
A Maine Coon of mine, Believers Pretty Woman, loves all forms of music. If I start singing along with anything or listening to a song or video on my phone she will appear out of nowhere and start rubbing all over my face like I’m singing to her and her alone. She likes all forms of music. Even just watching TikTok videos she becomes so happy she can’t stop rubbing all over me.
I never had any reactions with the violin oddly enough other than thinking the bow was a fantastic toy.
Recently a video appeared on the internet that seemed to reflect multiple sides of the issue. Recorded at the May 2024 Istanbul Music Festival, it showed a cat strolling onto the stage during the Lucerne Festival Strings performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. The cat casually sauntered by the strings section, seemingly unconcerned by the crowd and comfortable with the sounds. It appeared the cat was enjoying the performance and the audience, just as the audience was enjoying both the music and the cat. It seems Albert Schweitzer was right about the fortunate combination of people, cats, and music.