The Essential Van Morrison (Remastered) Van Morrison

• 1Gloria (Stereo Version) (48 kHz)02:36
• 2Here Comes the Night (48 kHz)02:44
• 3Spanish Rose (48 kHz)03:05
• 4Brown Eyed Girl (48 kHz)03:03
• 5Astral Weeks07:01
• 6The Way Young Lovers Do03:11
• 7Moondance04:35
• 8Crazy Love02:37
• 9And It Stoned Me04:29
• 10Into the Mystic03:24
• 11Domino03:07
• 12Wild Night03:33
• 13Tupelo Honey06:54
• 14Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)03:00
• 15Warm Love03:23
• 16Fair Play06:15
• 17Caravan - Live (48 kHz)05:44
• 18Hungry for Your Love (Remastered)03:44
• 19Cleaning Windows - Live04:22
• 20Bright Side of the Road03:46
• 21And the Healing Has Begun08:02
• 22Tore Down a la Rimbaud04:06
• 23Someone Like You04:09
• 24Irish Heartbeat03:52
• 25Whenever God Shines His Light04:53
• 26Have I Told You Lately04:18
• 27Real Real Gone03:37
• 28Enlightenment04:04
• 29Why Must I Always Explain?03:53
• 30Days Like This03:10
• 31That's Life03:47
• 32Rough God Goes Riding06:18
• 33Precious Time (Remastered)03:48
• 34Once in a Blue Moon (48 kHz)03:28
• 35Magic Time (48 kHz)05:08
• 36Playhouse (48 kHz)04:14
• 37Sweet Thing - Live (48 kHz)05:38
• 38Close Enough for Jazz03:45
• Total Runtime02:40:43

Info for The Essential Van Morrison (Remastered)

With Legacy Recordings securing the rights to the meat and potatoes of Van Morrison’s catalog, the drive to get the music in shape and out to consumers is full-on. Covering more than 50 years of music, with 50 titles from 1964 to the present, Morrison’s solo works from 1971 to the present are up for renewal as is the music the singer made with his band Them from 1964 through 1966. The Essential Van Morrison is a double-album, 37-track career-spanning anthology that kicks things off in grand style as a thorough introduction to Van Morrison. It all starts with those early Them nuggets like “Gloria” and “Here Comes The Night” before moving onto to Morrsion’s first solo hit “Brown Eyed Girl.” Of course, “Astral Weeks,” the title track of his second solo album changed the game entirely, leading to a career of musical exploration that transcends those early R&B and pop flavorings to more organic strains of country music, jazz, Celtic folk and rock.

Through it all, The Essential Van Morrison offers up highlights like “Moondance,” “And It Stoned Me,” “Domino,” “Wild Night” “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile)” and a smokin’ live version of “Caravan.” And that’s just the first disc. The second disc features songs from 1979 onward, a period when Morrison was less commercial, but more experimental, and by far more respected than ever. His simple and eloquent lines on “Irish Heartbeat” with the Chieftains is a prime example of where his heart was in the 80s. “Days Like This” from 1995 features another easy and smooth vocal with a jazzy swing. Clearly, as he has aged, Morrison’s range has expanded to the point where he can take any song and make it all his own. Even “That’s Life,” the widely covered Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon classic made most famous by Frank Sinatra in 1966, feels warm, fuzzy and fresh in Morrison’s hands.

"Timed to coincide with the first-ever digital release of the bulk of Van Morrison's catalog, 2015's The Essential Van Morrison is an idiosyncratic double-disc retrospective that runs from Them until a selection from 2009's Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl. Career-spanning anthologies are a rarity in Morrison's discography, as are compilations in general; apart from the endless march of Bang material, he's only had 1990's The Best of Van Morrison and its 1993 sequel, The Best of Van Morrison, Vol. 2, plus 2007's Still on Top: The Greatest Hits. The Essential Van Morrison doesn't merely recycle these compilations. It carves its own path, placing his best-known material from the '60s and '70s on the first disc, then covering 1979 and beyond on the second collection. This is a smart move because the truth is, Morrison never had many hits: the last time he crested the Billboard Top 40 was in 1971, when "Blue Money" made it to 23, while his last time in the U.K. Top 40 came in 1989, when "Whenever God Shines His Light" reached 20 with the assistance of Cliff Richard. The latter is here but the former joins "Come Running" as the two biggest omissions here -- other smaller ones are the non-LP "Wonderful Remark," "Full Force Gale," and "A Sense of Wonder" -- but even with their absence, The Essential Van Morrison covers all the necessary ground, delivering the staples while giving a sense of the full run of Morrison's career." (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG)

Van Morrison, vocals, guitar, harmonica, production, rhythm guitar, tambourine, backing vocals
Al Gorgoni, guitar
Hugh McCracken, guitar
Paul Griffin, piano
Garry Sherman, conductor, organ, actual arranger, musical supervisor
Jay Berliner, classical and steel-string acoustic guitars
Richard Davis, double bass
Eric Gale, bass
Gary Chester, drums
Connie Kay, drums
Warren Smith, Jr., percussion, vibraphone
Barry Kornfeld, acoustic guitar on "The Way Young Lovers Do"
The Sweet Inspirations, background vocals for "Brown Eyed Girl"
Them:
Peter Bardens, keyboards, organ (track 1)
Billy Harrison, guitar (track 1)
Alan Henderson, bass (track 1)
John McAuley, drums, piano, harmonica (track 1)

Digitally remastered

Van Morrison
One of music’s true originals Van Morrison’s unique and inspirational musical legacy is rooted in postwar Belfast.

Born in 1945 Van heard his Shipyard worker father’s collection of blues, country and gospel early in life.

Feeding off musical greats such as Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson and Leadbelly he was a travelling musician at 13 and singing, playing guitar and sax, in several bands, before forming Them in 1964.

Making their name at Belfast’s Maritime Club Them soon established Van as a major force in the British R&B scene. Morrison’s matchless vocal and songwriting talents produced instant classics such as the much covered ‘Gloria’ and ‘Here Comes The Night’.

Those talents found full astonishing range in Van’s solo career.

After working with Them’s New York producer Bert Berns on beautiful Top 40 pop hit ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ (1967), Morrison moved to another realm.

Recorded over 3 days with legendary jazz musicians Astral Weeks (1968) is a still singular album combining street poetry, jazz improvisation, Celtic invocation and Afro Celtic Blues wailing.

Morrison would weave these and myriad other influences into the albums that followed in quick succession.

Reflecting on new life in America on the joyous Sinatra soul of Moondance (1970) and the country inflected Tupelo Honey (1971) he summoned old spiritual and ancestral life in the epic St Dominic’s Preview (1972) closer track Listen To The Lion.

Double live album Too Late To Stop Now (1973) highlighted Morrison’s superlative performing and bandleader skills. Mapping out a richly varied musical course throughout the 70s he shone among an all-star cast including Bob Dylan and Muddy Waters on The Band’s Last Waltz.

Indeed, borne of his Irish Showband instincts, the magic of the live performance has been a consistent feature of Morrison’s career.

Settling back into life in the UK in 1980 he released Common One an album centring on Summertime In England an extraordinary invocation of literary, sensual and spiritual pleasure the song would often become a thrilling improvised centrepiece to his live shows.

Steering his own course throughout the 80s on albums such as No Guru, No Method, No Teacher he claimed Celtic roots with The Chieftains on Irish Heartbeat. Teaming with Georgie Fame brought new impetus to his live show while Avalon Sunset saw him back in the album and single charts by the decades end.

Van Morrison continued to advance on his status as a game- changing artist through the 90s and into the 21st century.

Awards and accolades - a Brit, an OBE, an Ivor Novello, 6 Grammys, honourary doctorates from Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster, entry into The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and the French Ordres Des Artes Et Des Lettres - attested to the international reach of Van’s musical art.

Yet there was never any suggestion that Morrison, one of the most prolific recording artists and hardest working live performers of his era, would ever rest on his laurels.

Collaborations with, among others, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Lonnie Donegan, Mose Allison and Tom Jones confirmed the breadth of his musical reach.

Morrison’s visionary songwriting and mastery of many genres continued to shine on albums celebrating and re-exploring his blues, jazz, skiffle and country roots.

The influence of the musical journey that began back in Post War Belfast stretches across the generations, and Morrison’s questing hunger insures that the journey itself continues.

Constantly reshaping his musical history in live performance, Morrison reclaimed Astral Weeks on 2009’s album Live At The Hollywood Bowl.

The subtitle of Van Morrison's latest album, Born to Sing: No Plan B, indicates the power that music still holds for this living legend. "No Plan B means this is not a rehearsal," says Morrison. "That’s the main thing—it’s not a hobby, it’s real, happening now, in real time."

With one of the most revered catalogues in music history and his unparalleled talents as composer, singer and performer Morrison’s past achievements loom large. But, as throughout his extraordinary career, how that past informs his future achievements and still stirs excitement and keen anticipation.

This album contains no booklet.