Best Van Morrison Songs - The Love Ballads

As the creator of "Brown Eyed Girl" and an impressive list of rom-com soundtrack favorites, Van Morrison might be best known to the average listener as a romantic balladeer. The reputation is deserved, but is just one facet of the artist. My list here includes a couple you probably won't hear in the movies, and one you certainly have already.

"Crazy Love" - Moondance (1970)

"Crazy Love" has been covered often and featured in film (Aaron Neville's version in Phenomenon comes to mind first), simply because it's a perfect love song. Van's version is definitive, however, sung in a hushed falsetto, backed with subtle vibraphone and soulful call-and-response from female backing vocals. As we often see in Van Morrison songs, the singer finds redemption in the love of a woman: "She gives me some sweet loving, brightens up my day, and it makes me righteous, makes me whole."

"Stepping Out Queen Part II" - outtake from Into the Music (1979), released on Philosopher's Stone (1998)

This is a typical Van meditation jam, but the beauty here is it's from the recording session of one of his best records. Backed by drums, bass, piano, and fiddle, Van lays down a sensual strum on acoustic guitar, beginning the song with a spoken intro. When he starts singing "Come into my garden and just look at the flowers!" it gets me every time. I know it looks dumb on paper, but you've got to hear it. He transforms a line, repeats it, reworks it and makes it pure and undeniable. The passion builds as the singer pleads to his lover at dawn and the acoustic guitar goes to double-time strum, the bass climbs and falls, the cymbals explode and, well, just listen and use your imagination.

"Sweet Thing" - Astral Weeks (1968)

Astral Weeks is special for myriad reasons, one of which is the group of unfamiliar musicians Van found himself with at a recording session in New York in 1968. Fresh off a terrible experience with Bang Records (one that did produce the classic "Brown-Eyed Girl"), Van had a fresh start with Warner Bros. and this was his first session under the new contract. Jazz musicians were hired, and the fusion of their improvisational instincts with Van's soulful folk songs produced a classic in less than a week. Van invokes the Romantic poets here; "Sweet Thing" sounds like it could have been written by John Keats - "I will stroll the merry way and jump the hedges first / I will drink the clear clean water for to quench my thirst." Connie Kay's drumming stands out to me, as it does whenever he shows up on a Van Morrison recording. Kay's insistent hi-hat and tasteful fills give the song urgency; Jay Berliner adds sweet flourishes on acoustic guitar; even the string arrangement overdubbed in later sessions adds just the right touches of grace. Together they give the sensation of floating - a fitting ode to romantic love, I'd say.

Whenever I talk about Van Morrison I always want to tell people about another favorite artist, prattle on, rick. Deeply influenced by Van's music, prattle on, rick. preserves Van's heartfelt, dreamy aesthetic and updates it in a lovely modern folk-pop sound. Do yourself the favor of downloading some of their music for free at http://prattleonrickmusic.com/

You can read the other articles in my Best Van Morrison Songs: 30 Essentials series, available at my profile.