Rock Tracks chart. The single sold 500,000 copies domestically, earning a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. Worldwide, the cover peaked at number one in Australia for a week and reached the top five in Iceland, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as number seven on the UK Singles Chart. Critical reception AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine remarked the band's "revamped" version of the song. Mary Lynn White from Calgary Herald said their version "proves you're deep too." Jason Fliegel from The Cavalier Daily felt the band has redone the song "in its own unique style". Deborah Frost of Entertainment Weekly called it a "scarily straight" cover. Steve Hochman of Los Angeles Times said, "Turning Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" into a power ballad was a bad idea to begin with; making it sound neither snotty nor particularly sincere only compounds the error." Tom Ford from Toledo Blade wrote that they "do an excellent job", "adding power to the sing-song chorus, and a crashing finale that removes its coffeehouse patina." Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts Certifications Release history Elsewhere in popular culture Rapper Darryl "DMC" McDaniels was inspired to rewrite "Cat's in the Cradle" and perform it as "Just Like Me," featuring Sarah McLachlan. The song was released from DMC's album Checks Thugs and Rock n Roll in March 2006; it tells the story of his birth and adoption. Used in an episode of The Office by Dwight to guilt trip his coworker Jim Halpert into going home to his wife and child; the attempt is almost successful, playing on the clear theme of the relationship between father and son in the song. Ultimately, Dwight's attempt backfires. In season 4, episode 7 of How I Met Your Mother, Barney Stinson, who was abandoned by his father as a child, performs an emotional rendition of the song at a karaoke bar. In the movie Shrek the Third, Donkey starts singing the song as their boat departs after Shrek finds out Fiona is pregnant. The song was used in a 1993 anti-terrorism advert Public Service Advert in Northern Ireland that plays on the song's theme of a father who neglects his son in order to show a terrorist neglecting his family and his son turning out to be like his father and suffering the consequences in dying by going down the same life