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Moondance
''Moondance'' is the third studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 27 January 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. After the commercial failure of his first Warner Bros. album ''Astral Weeks'' (1968), Morrison moved to upstate New York with his wife and began writing songs for ''Moondance''. There, he met the musicians that would record the album with him at New York City's A & R Studios in August and September 1969. The album found Morrison abandoning the abstract folk jazz compositions of ''Astral Weeks'' in favour of more formally composed songs, which he wrote and produced entirely himself. Its lively rhythm and blues/rock music was the style he would become most known for in his career. The music incorporated soul music, soul, jazz, pop music, pop, and Irish folk sounds into songs about finding spiritual renewal and redemption in worldly matters such as nature, music, romantic love, and self-affirmation. ''Moondance'' was an immediate c ...
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Moondance (Van Morrison Song)
"Moondance" is a song recorded by Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison and is the title song on his third studio album ''Moondance'' (1970). It was written by Morrison, and produced by Morrison and Lewis Merenstein. Morrison did not release the song as a single until September 1977, seven and a half years after the album was released. It debuted two months later where it reached #92, on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #91 on the US ''Cash Box'' Top 100 The single's B-side, "Cold Wind in August", had been released in the same year, on his latest album at the time, ''A Period of Transition''. "Moondance" is the song that Van Morrison plays most frequently in concert. Composition and recording "Moondance" was recorded at the Mastertone Studio in New York City in August 1969, with Lewis Merenstein as producer. The song is played mostly acoustic, anchored by a walking bass line (played on electric bass by John Klingberg), with accompaniment by piano, guitar, saxop ...
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Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments such as guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for several Irish showbands, covering the popular hits of that time. Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison rose to prominence in the mid 1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B and rock band Them. With Them, he recorded the garage band classic " Gloria". Under the pop-oriented guidance of Bert Berns, Morrison's solo career began in 1967 with the release of the hit single " Brown Eyed Girl". After Berns's death, Warner Bros. Records bought out Morrison's contract and allowed him three sessions to record '' Astral Weeks'' (1968). While initially a poor seller, the album has become regarded as a classic. '' Moondance'' ...
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Van Morrison (1972)
Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer, musician and songwriter whose recording career spans seven decades. Morrison began performing as a teenager in the late 1950s, playing a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands, covering the popular hits of that time. Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band Them, with whom he wrote and recorded "Gloria", which became a garage band staple. His solo career started under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns's death, Warner Bros. Records bought Morrison's contract and allowed him three sessions to record ''Astral Weeks'' (1968). While initially a poor seller, the album has become regarded as a classic. ''Moondance'' (1970) established ...
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His Band And The Street Choir
''His Band and the Street Choir'' (also referred to as ''Street Choir'') is the fourth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 15 November 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. Originally titled ''Virgo's Fool'', ''Street Choir'' was renamed by Warner Bros. without Morrison's consent. Recording began in early 1970 with a demo session in a small church in Woodstock, New York. Morrison booked the A&R Studios on 46th Street in New York City in the second quarter of 1970 to produce two sessions of songs that were released on ''His Band and the Street Choir''. Reviewers praised the music of both sessions for its free, relaxed sound, but the lyrics were considered to be simple compared with those of his previous work. Morrison had intended to record the album ''a cappella'' with only vocal backing by a vocal group he called the Street Choir, but the songs released on the album that included the choir also featured a backing band. Morrison was dissatisf ...
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Come Running
"Come Running" is a song written by singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1970 album ''Moondance''. "Come Running" was also the only song to survive the ''Astral Weeks'' demos for Warner Bros. in 1968. Recording The song was first recorded at the Warners Publishing Studio, New York in early 1969 with Morrison's producer at the time, Lewis Merenstein. It was then rerecorded in both the spring and summer sessions in the same year, before Morrison returned to the track in the September to November sessions at the A&R Recording Studios, 46th Street, New York, that resulted in the recording of most of the tracks that were released on ''Moondance''. Composition "Come Running" is composed in the key of A major, with a chord progression of A-D-A-D-A-D-A-D-A-D-A-E-D, which changes at the coda to A-F#m-A-D-F#m-Bm-D-A. The song has a bright rock tempo in 4/4 time, which slows at the three bar coda. Morrison described it as "a very light type of song. It's not too heavy. ...
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Crazy Love (Van Morrison Song)
"Crazy Love" is a romantic ballad written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1970 album, ''Moondance''. The song was originally released as the B-side to " Come Running" in May 1970 before it was released as a single in the Netherlands, "Come Running" as the B-side. The cover of the single shows Morrison with his then-wife, Janet "Planet" Rigsbee. The photograph was taken by Elliot Landy, the official photographer of the 1969 Woodstock festival. Duets with Van Morrison Ray Charles introduced Van Morrison by starting the first verse before Van's appearance when he was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2003. Morrison and Charles then finished with a duet of "Crazy Love". Ray Charles remarked about this performance: "It meant a lot to sing 'Crazy Love' on stage that evening." ''Genius Loves Company'', Ray Charles' 2004 album, includes this duet featuring the two singers. Van Morrison and Bob Dylan sang a duet of "Crazy Love" on the BB ...
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Jef Labes
Jef Labes is an American keyboardist and musician. He is best known from his work with Van Morrison and Bonnie Raitt. Jef Labes has also arranged for string and woodwind instruments on numerous albums. Career Labes started his recording career with the Boston-based Apple Pie Motherhood Band, playing piano and organ on the albums ''Apple Pie & Motherhood'' (1968), composing four of the tracks himself and ''Apple Pie'' (1969), this time composing one track. The band split up later in 1969 and would not make another album. In the same year Labes moved to Woodstock to join Van Morrison as a live musician. At this time Labes had been shown the music for three songs off Morrison's "classic" album ''Astral Weeks'' in the studio, and was recording with the band Morrison had used for the album. All these musicians were replaced in the summer of 1969, leaving only Labes. The new musicians, along with Labes, were used for the recording of Morrison's third solo album ''Moondance''. In an in ...
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John Platania
John Platania is a session musician, guitar player, and record producer. He was born in 1948 in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, in Ulster County, near Woodstock. Career Van Morrison Platania is best known for his work with Van Morrison, beginning on '' Moondance'', and most recently on 2016's ''Keep Me Singing''. In 1973 he toured with Morrison as a member of his band at the time The Caledonia Soul Orchestra. The double live album ''It's Too Late to Stop Now'' was released in 1974, which included songs from three nights of the tour. Platania also co-wrote two songs with Morrison, on his compilation album of out-takes '' The Philosopher's Stone'', as well as playing guitar on several of the tracks on disc one. In July 1980, Platania played guitar with Van Morrison's band at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and appeared on the issued DVD ''Live at Montreux 1980/1974'' (2006). In 2006, Platania again reunited with Van Morrison, touring on Morrison's " Pay the Devil" tour and continu ...
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Lewis Merenstein
Lewis Merenstein (October 23, 1934 – September 6, 2016) was an American record producer, most famous as the producer of the Van Morrison album '' Astral Weeks'', and as executive producer for '' Moondance'', Morrison's 1970 album. '' Astral Weeks'' was listed as #19 on the Rolling Stone Magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. In November 2006, when CNN published their list of ''The All-Time 100 Albums'', ''Astral Weeks'' was on the list, along with ''Moondance''. Biography Merenstein was born on October 23, 1934 to a German-Jewish immigrant family in Baltimore, Maryland. His aunt was Bess (née Merenstein) Berman, co-founder of the Apollo record label; and his uncle was Charles Merenstein, a co-writer of the song '' Handy Man.'' He moved to New York City in the late 1950s and worked on jazz recordings at the Nola Penthouse studios with producer Tom Wilson. During the 1960s he began working as a producer in his own right on records by Miriam Makeba, Gladys Kn ...
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Astral Weeks
''Astral Weeks'' is the second studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was recorded at Century Sound Studios in New York during September and October 1968, and released in November of the same year by Warner Bros. Records. The album's music blends folk music, folk, blues, jazz, and classical music, classical styles, signalling a radical departure from the sound of Morrison's previous pop music, pop hits, such as "Brown Eyed Girl" (1967). The lyrics and cover art portray the symbolism equating earthly love and heaven that would often feature in the singer's subsequent records. His lyrics have been described as impressionism, impressionistic, hypnosis, hypnotic, and stream of consciousness (narrative mode), modernist, while the record has been categorized as a song cycle or concept album. ''Astral Weeks'' did not originally receive promotion from Morrison's record label and was not an immediate success with consumers or critics. Its standing eventually ...
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Bert Berns
Bertrand Russell Berns (November 8, 1929 – December 30, 1967), also known as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. His songwriting credits include "Twist and Shout", " Piece of My Heart", " Here Comes the Night", " Hang on Sloopy", " Cry to Me" and " Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", and his productions include " Baby, Please Don't Go", "Brown Eyed Girl" and " Under the Boardwalk". Early life Born in the Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Berns contracted rheumatic fever as a child, an illness that damaged his heart and would mark the rest of his life, resulting in his early death. Turning to music, he found enjoyment in the sounds of his African American and Latino neighbors. As a young man, Berns danced in mambo nightclubs, and made his way to Havana before the Cuban Revolution. Music career Beginnings (1960–1963) Shortly after his return from Cuba, Berns began a seven-year run f ...
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Rhythm And Blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations. The term "rhythm and blues" has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was frequently applied to blues records. Starting in the mid-1950s, after this sty ...
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