Naming of Cats Lyrics – Cats

Song Overview

The Naming of Cats by the Original Broadway Cast of Cats sits at track 3 on Cats: Complete Original Broadway Cast Recording, released January 26, 1983 on Geffen. A whispered ritual more than a tune, it announces the Jellicle tribe’s rule of three names and invites the audience into the show’s odd midnight grammar.

Personal Review

If you come for big choruses, The Naming of Cats startles by doing the opposite. These lyrics arrive as a hush, a chant that crawls through the theater and makes the room feel tuned to secret frequencies. One clean takeaway: identity here is layered - family label, particular label, and the one no human will ever know.

Short snapshot of the plot-beat: a tribe pauses the party to teach us that every cat - and maybe every person - keeps a private self locked behind a name.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Onstage the number breaks the fourth wall. Asparagus and Munkustrap speak to the audience while the Company circles, pointing the way into the Jellicle myth. It is designated for those voices in the show’s musical numbers list, and on the album it’s placed exactly where the stage action uses it - early, like a lit match in a dark warehouse.

The text is T. S. Eliot’s 1939 poem, converted by Andrew Lloyd Webber into a theatrical chant. The rhythm keeps the poem’s rolling meter but the pit gives you atmosphere instead of melody. Musicologists and program notes alike describe the underscoring as fragmented and often dissonant, with no single key center to lean on. That tonal slipperiness is why the piece feels both friendly and a little uncanny.

Genre fusion, then: show-music scaffolding with a spoken-choral delivery. The dynamic arc starts matter-of-fact, grows ceremonial as the “particular” names appear, and resolves in a sly smile with that invented coinage “effanineffable.” Culturally, the lyric tips its hat to Carroll’s “mad as a hatter” and to a parade of mythic names that lend the moment mock grandeur.

Creation timeline is simple but important. Webber built Cats in 1981 from Eliot’s book; Broadway opened in October 1982; the Original Broadway Cast recorded in October 1982 and released the album January 26, 1983. Track 3 is The Naming of Cats, timed at 3:02 on the complete set.

And yes, the idea traveled. Peter Ustinov quips a shortened version in Logan’s Run, which is why some cinephiles recognize the three-name rule before they ever see the musical. The 2019 film adaptation of Cats also folds the rite into its early scenes.

The naming of cats is a difficult matter... a cat must have three different names.

Annotation: three tiers of identity - public, particular, secret - like concentric rings in a tree trunk. The chant makes it feel like law, not suggestion. :

Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular... or cherish his pride?

Annotation: the posture is metaphor. A name isn’t just a tag; it’s spine, dignity, the right to take up space.

Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name.

Annotation: that triple beat mirrors the triple-name schema. Onstage it lands like a soft drum - one-two-three - and the audience leans in.

Production and instrumentation details vary by orchestration, but the licensed 16-piece template explains what your ear catches beneath the whispers: three keyboards coloring the landscape, woodwinds switching doubles, brass for glow, guitar and rhythm section for pulse, plus cello for warmth.

Verse Highlights

Verse 1

The first roll call of everyday names makes the scene feel neighborly. It’s a gentle handshake before the rules get stricter.

Chorus

There isn’t a chorus in pop terms. The refrain is conceptual: the three-name pattern that keeps returning like a marker buoy.

Middle passage

When “particular” arrives, the diction sharpens. Onstage, you hear the consonants click while the harmony thins, which amplifies the sense of ceremony.

Final lines

“Ineffable, effable, effanineffable” spins the tongue and leaves a smile. The cast usually drops to a near-whisper and lets the pit glow underneath.

Tags: The Naming of Cats lyrics, Original Broadway Cast of Cats, Cats musical, T. S. Eliot, Andrew Lloyd Webber

Key Facts

• Featured voices: Asparagus, Munkustrap, Company.
• Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber.
• Lyric text: T. S. Eliot, adapted from the 1939 poem.
• Producer of OBCR: Andrew Lloyd Webber.
• Release date of OBCR: January 26, 1983.
• Track number: 3 on the complete Broadway cast recording.
• Length: 3:02 on the OBCR.
• Label: Geffen Records.
• Genre: Show tune as spoken-choral chant.
• Instruments, licensed 16-piece template: 3 keyboards, woodwinds (doubles), brass section, guitar, bass, drums, cello, percussion.
• Mood: ceremonial, quietly uncanny.
• Language: English.
• Album: Cats: Complete Original Broadway Cast Recording.
• Music style note: fragmented, often dissonant underscoring with no fixed key center.
• Poetic meter: primarily anapestic swing in delivery of Eliot’s verse, loosened in performance.

Songs Exploring Themes of names and identity

Names carry weight across musical theater. This track whispers; others roar.

“Who Am I?” - Les Misérables (1980). Identity as moral declaration. The vocal line climbs like a verdict, the orchestra answers in waves. Where The Naming of Cats keeps a secret third name, Valjean pins his identity to action in public view. Different roads to the same question.

“Defying Gravity” - Wicked (2003). Self-naming as rebellion. The belt, the rock pulse, the airborne staging - it’s a manifesto. Our Jellicles keep mystery; Elphaba burns hers in the sky. While one track teaches rules, the other breaks them to be seen.

“My Shot” - Hamilton (2015). Identity introduced before the world can tag you. Dense rhyme and quick-step rhythm turn a name into a banner. Compared to the Cats chant, it’s noise and fire, yet both are origin stories that define a tribe.

Questions and Answers

Is The Naming of Cats actually sung?

In the show it’s spoken in coordinated rhythm over sparse underscoring, which preserves Eliot’s speech cadence.

Who leads it in the stage credits?

Asparagus and Munkustrap, with the Company. That’s how the musical numbers list bills it.

Where does it sit on the Broadway cast album?

Track 3 on the complete recording.

How long is the track?

3 minutes and 2 seconds on the 1983 release.

Has the text appeared outside the musical?

Yes. Peter Ustinov recites a shortened version in the 1976 film Logan’s Run, years before the stage show.

Awards and Chart Positions

The Original Broadway Cast Recording that contains The Naming of Cats won Best Cast Show Album at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards on February 28, 1984. On the charts, the album peaked at No. 131 on the Billboard 200, No. 5 in Austria, and No. 17 in New Zealand, and later earned RIAA Platinum certification on December 5, 1988.

How to Sing?

Treat it like ceremony. Keep breath low and steady, speak on supported air, and articulate names like percussion. Because the underscoring is deliberately fragmented and often dissonant, lock ensemble cutoffs so the final “name” lands together. If pitches creep in, shadow the harmony instead of forcing a tune. Minimal movement, direct eyes, shared pulse - that’s the spell.