Sure, T.S. Eliot was an acclaimed author, but the Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats hardly ranked among his most poignant works. Yet whatever inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber to take it up obviously worked. It helped that Webber assembled an all-star production team around his new musical, including Royal Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Trevor Nunn. Webber brought his considerable musical composition talents to the front, and with his production team created a show that would run for 7,000 performances, the second-longest in Broadway history (behind only another Webber musical, The Phantom of the Opera.)

On this day, October 7, after a rollicking debut in London’s West End, and over $6 million in advance ticket sales, CATS opened at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway. The story focused on a tribe of anthropomorphic cats deciding which one of them will ascend to “Heavyside Layer” and come back to a new life.

Like Webber’s other broadway musicals, CATS introduced a song — “Memory” — that would become a hit in its own right. Elaine Paige, as the aging feline Grizabella, originally sang “Memory,” a nostalgic ballad about better days, and her rendition quickly climbed the charts: the single reached up #5 on the U.K. charts. In the U.S., Barbra Streisand covered the song on her album, also titled Memories, and went to #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.