Spotlight On: Van Morrison

If you only know Van Morrison through his hits "Brown Eyed Girl," and "Moondance," then you're not really getting the full effect.

Now, I'm not about to write some long form bio on the man - simply check out his wikipedia page for all that information. I will however, point you to some of his music and open the door to more, should you decide to pursue it.

Let's start off with the fact that Mr. Morrison isn't known to be the most personable singer. Take for example this performance of Brown Eyed Girl, on American Bandstand...

But now let's take a look at him giving it his all...This from The Last Waltz (and if you haven't seen The Last Waltz and enjoy music, you're stupid)...

(apologies for the quality, but the music and heart still comes through, I think)

So now, let's take a look at the 5 best Van Morrison songs ever, a list that can't be debated because it's locked in stone.

#5 - The cliched wedding song that still holds up even though everyone really does use it for their wedding...Into the Mystic

2 things about this video...

1. I love his jacket. If anyone has a lead on where I could score something like it, I would be indebted to you forever.

2. If he weren't playing guitar there, and you saw him walking down the street, you'd think he was a serial killer, right?

#4 Wild Night (and don't you dare reference John Cougar Mellencamp)

#3 St. Dominic's Preview

#2 Ballerina

#1 Cleaning Windows/Tupelo Honey

Seriously, I can't pick...

And here's the link for Cleaning Windows.

And because I stumbled across this while researching (unfortunately, I can't embed it) here's a live version of Moondance, with a couple of all stars in the band.